The Wound Man first appeared around 1400 in German surgical books, closely linked to the Würzburg surgeon Ortolf von Baierland. He is a figure stabbed by swords and spears, pierced by arrows and bitten by a dog, a snake and a scorpion, with blue buboes showing plague. Numbers and phrases scattered across his body pointed the reader to the paragraph of the surgical text that explained how to treat each injury, so he worked as a human table of contents. He was reprinted in 1491 in the Fasciculus medicinae, a Latin treatise that went through about twenty-five editions. Later printers removed the text entirely, turning him into an emblem of surgery itself, a sign that the book's owner was qualified to treat such wounds. The image shows that medieval medicine was an organised, hopeful craft rather than a helpless one.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.