The medical illustration history be traced to the middle ages. Then the cadaver was dissected for forensic purposes and later this technique was used as an anatomic research tool for a better knowledge of the construction of the human body. In the Middle Ages appeared anatomic illustrated tables that were the first contact among art and anatomy. The artist, during the Renaissance, was very interested in acquiring a deeper knowledge about the human body. They made the dissections by themselves just to get the experience that later will be printed in their drawing. During this movement, Leonardo da Vinci was the first to make the symbiosis of Art and Science.

By the late years of the XVIIth century, appeared the first intents of medical art design schools. A formal school was established in the year of 1700 when the Anatomic Art Design School of Bologna University was founded. There, a small group of artists directed by the anatomy expert, made illustrations for Atlas and Anatomy Handbooks. This effort started the integration of anatomy with the artistic drawing.

In the middle of the XXth Century, the personality of the medical illustrator was defined. For the first time the figure of the artist was taken apart from the subordinated function to the editorial industry and the medical texts. In 1950 was formally founded the Anatomic Art Design School of the Bologna University, which was the first, and the only, school in Italy to issue professional degree diplomas in the subject matter. This school is part of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bologna. Throughout Europe, in Paris, London, Strasburg and Zurich, are established schools issuing the same professional degrees.