Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius or Andreas Vesal, or Andras van Wesele (December 31, 1514, Brussels, Belgium – October 15, 1564, island of Zacynthus, Greece (then Republic of Venice) was a Flemish anatomist and author of the first complete textbook on human anatomy, De Humanis Corporis Fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body).

Related Topics:
Wesele - December 31 - 1514 - Brussels, Belgium - October 15 - 1564 - Zacynthus - Greece - Republic of Venice - Flemish - Anatomist - Human anatomy - De Humanis Corporis Fabrica

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The French anatomy of the 16th century was distinguished by two circumstances unfavourable to the advancement of the science—extravagant admiration of antiquity, with excessive confidence in the writings of Galen, and the general practice of dissecting the bodies of the lower animals. Both these errors were much amended by the exertions of the young Fleming, Vesalius, a native of Brussels. After acquiring at Leuven the ordinary classical attainments of the day, Vesalius began at the age of fourteen to study anatomy under the auspices of Jacques Dubois. The originality of his mind soon led him to abandon the prejudices innate in Dubois' teaching, and take the most direct course for attaining a knowledge of the structure of the human frame. He neither underrated the Galenian anatomy nor was indolent in the dissection of brute animals. The difficulties, however, with which the practical pursuit of human anatomy was beset in France, and the dangers with which he had to contend, made him look to Italy as a suitable place to learn: and in 1536 he went to Venice, pursuing the study of human anatomy. When only twenty-one, he requested to demonstrate publicly in the University of Padua. After about seven years, Vesalius was invited to Bologna, and shortly afterwards to Pisa; as professor in three universities, he appears to have carried on his anatomical investigations and instructions alternately at Padua, Bologna and Pisa, in the course of the same winter. It is on this account that Vesalius, though trained originally in the French school, belongs, as an anatomist, to the Italian, and may be viewed as the first of an illustrious line of teachers by whom the anatomical reputation of that country was raised to the greatest eminence.

Related Topics:
16th century - Galen - Brussels - Leuven - Jacques Dubois - Italy - Venice - University of Padua - Bologna - Pisa

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Vesalius is known as the first author of a comprehensive and systematic view of human anatomy. The knowledge provided by his dissections proved how many errors were being taught and learned under the guise of Galenian authority; and he recognised the need for a new system of anatomical instruction, divested of the omissions of ignorance and the misrepresentations of prejudice and fancy. The early age at which he achieved this has made him famous; we are told that he began at the age of twenty-five to arrange the materials he had collected, and accomplished his task while still in his twenties.

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