Vesalius (Cultural Knowledge: Scientific discoveries)

VESALIUS (Belgian anatomist, 1514-1564)

Andreas Vesalius was born in Belgium to generations of medical men, but also exhibited an interest in art. Academics in his day accepted the teachings of the early physician Galen (129-216 CE) as unassailable, but Vesalius nevertheless assailed them by doing his own dissections and encouraging his students to do the same. Vesalius also learned that Galen's conclusions were drawn from animal dissections; Vesalius published updated studies and illustrations of human anatomy, including most notably "On the fabric of the human body in seven books." Though his was not the only or even the first work based on actual human dissection, the quality of his work marks the establishment of human anatomy as a modern descriptive science.

---

Navigation:

• View this post on Facebook or Instagram
• Go to the Mini-Lessons Index

(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)