Vesalius, Andreas (1514–1564)

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VESALIUS, ANDREAS (1514–1564)

VESALIUS, ANDREAS (1514–1564), Belgian anatomist. Born in Brussels, Vesalius came from a family of physicians with professional links to the courts of Austria and Burgundy. Between 1530 and 1536 he studied at the universities of Louvain and Paris. He acquired skill in the technique of dissection and a thorough comprehension of Galenic anatomy in Paris, where a deep philological and hermeneutical reassessment of the Galenic corpus was under way. Due to the outbreak of the war between Charles V and Francis I, Vesalius returned to Louvain in 1536, and there he published the Paraphrasis in Nonum Librum Rhazae (Paraphrase of the ninth book of Rhazes). After a brief stay in Venice as a surgeon, he settled in Padua, where he took a degree in medicine in 1537. In the same year he was appointed lecturer of surgery. As a teacher, he combined in a revolutionary way the functions of lecturer, demonstrator, and dissector. Between 1538 and 1539 he published the Tabulae Anatomicae Sex (Six anatomical plates), a set of six large sheets of anatomical woodcuts accompanied by brief explanatory notes, and the so-called Venesection letter, a defense of the humanist and Greek view on bloodletting against medieval and Arab interpretations. On the basis of both his outstanding knowledge of Galen's texts (Vesalius also collaborated to the Giunta edition of Galen's Opera Omnia, published between 1541–1542) and his anatomical findings, he wrote De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (Seven books on the structure of the human body), published in Basel by Joannes Oporinus in 1543. After the publication of the Fabrica, Vesalius sought employment in the imperial medical service. He became military surgeon and personal physician to Emperor Charles V (ruled 1519–1556). Between 1543 and 1544 he returned briefly to Italy, giving public anatomies in Padua, Bologna, and Pisa. In the Epistola Rationem Modumque Propinandi Radicis Chynae Decocti (1546; Letter on the manner of administering the china-root), he investigated the therapeutic value of the china-root. After Charles V's abdication in 1556, he was appointed physician to the Netherlanders at the Spanish court by Philip II. In the same year he published a revised edition of the Fabrica containing some relevant additions on cardiovascular physiology. He died in 1564 during a pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem.

De Humani Corporis Fabrica represents an extraordinary intellectual accomplishment that combines anatomical investigation, artistic ingenuity, woodcut craftmanship, and typographical expertise. Vesalius's intention was to give a most detailed and reliable account of the human body, an account purged of previous errors, based on direct reference to cadavers, and corroborated by the use of animal vivisection and comparative anatomy. The Fabrica can be viewed as both the foundation of modern anatomy and as a reference handbook for those practitioners who could not have direct access to dissection material. The anatomical illustrations were in all likelihood the product of artists and draftsmen from Titian's studio. Vesalius planned the enterprise and directed the execution, and it can be assumed that he had some share in the actual draftsmanship.

The Fabrica is more a correction of errors in Galen than it is an announcement of revolutionary discoveries. Vesalius was a formidable teacher and an outstanding performer of anatomical demonstrations, capable of entrancing observers with his manual dexterity. The importance of his work lies in his advanced pedagogical techniques and in his methodological views about anatomy. He introduced the use of anatomical drawings as a teaching device, mnemonic aid, and alternative source of information in the absence of a sufficient supply of cadavers. He revolutionized anatomical practice by establishing a reliable correspondence between the dissected body, the text of reference, and the illustrations. He contributed significantly to the standardization of anatomical nomenclature. From the religious point of view, Vesalius's work touched on some highly critical points in contemporary theological debates, such as the location of the faculties of the soul, the physical similarities between human and animal brains, the existence of the reticular plexus at the base of the brain, and the manufacture of animal spirits.

See also Anatomy and Physiology ; Medicine ; Scientific Illustration ; Scientific Method ; Surgeons .