Leonardo da Vinci did not personally dig up graves to obtain bodies for his anatomy studies. Instead, his methods evolved over time from relying on illegal acquisition as primary sources say he secretly worked at night indicating he knew what he could do could land him in trouble, to operating with official permission.

This is just for the meme.

Early in his career, laws prohibited non-physicians from performing human dissections. According to Beresheim (2024), Leonardo paid grave robbers to retrieve bodies from the crypt of the Santa Maria Nuova hospital in Florence. As his work progressed, the director of that hospital began supplying him with cadavers directly.

Between 1506 and 1513, Leonardo received official permission to conduct human dissections at hospitals in Florence, Milan, and Rome. During this period, he collaborated with Marcantonio della Torre, a professor of anatomy at the University of Pavia. Leonardo’s research methods were highly advanced for the era; to study the brain, he developed a wax-casting technique. He inserted tubes into the cerebral ventricles of ox and horse brains and injected molten wax to create spatial models of the internal cavities.

The widespread belief that the Catholic Church strictly banned all dissections is historically inaccurate. As explained by Dzierzanowski et al. (2026), papal decrees primarily targeted the desecration and dismemberment of bodies, specifically pilgrims, for the purpose of transport and burial, rather than the act of anatomical dissection itself. Furthermore, Leonardo was supported by multiple wealthy patrons, including Pope Leo X after his work gained prominence.