At the juncture of history and literary criticism,Performing the Sixteenth-Century Brainre-examines two books, Hans von Gersdorff'sFeldtbuch der Wundtartzney(Fieldbook of Surgery) and Lorenz Fries'Spiegel der Artzny(Mirror of Medicine) that include some of the first visually accurate representations of the body and brain. The central objective of this book is to shift the focus away from the images themselves to their production and interpretation in the early sixteenth century. Kısmet Bell's close readings of Gersdorff'sFeldtbuch der Wundtartzneyand Fries'Spiegel der Artznyfollow the meandering path of the inner senses of common sense, imagination, reason, and memory as these were the mental powers which framed that which was knowable.Performing the Sixteenth-Century Braindescribes how the brain was, rather than a radically new discovery, an unintended artifact that emerged through slight shifts in the codes of inscription.