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Andreas Vesalius: His Science, Teaching, and Exceptional Books

2013; American Association for Clinical Chemistry; Volume: 59; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1373/clinchem.2012.199968

1530-8561

Marek H Dominiczak,

Medical and Biological Sciences

Andreas Vesalius (1514 -1564) is one of the greatest anatomists of all time.His lasting recognition is due to two major achievements: being instrumental in making anatomy an empirical science and presenting the results of his work in an extraordinarily innovative way.The latter is also his connection with the arts.Vesalius was born in Brussels.He started his education in Leuven, attended the University of Paris, and completed his studies at the University of Padua (1, 2 ).From 1405 Padua was in the territory of the Venetian Republic, by far the strongest of the Renaissance city-states (3 ).Venice was also a major center of the arts, with artists such as Jacopo, Gentile, and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian (1488/90 -1576), who was then regarded as the greatest painter in Europe.In their art, the Venetians emphasized the use of color, in contrast to line, which was dominant in Florentine painting.Medical knowledge at that time was based on texts rather than empirical observations.The foundations for the practice of medicine were still the writings of a Roman physician, Galen (129 to c 230), whose views had dominated it for over 1300 years (4 ).During the Renaissance, the humanists' interest in the human body stimulated progress in anatomy, and anatomical treatises began to appear at the beginning of the 16th century.At Padua, Vesalius taught anatomy and surgery.He focused the teaching of anatomy on dissection of human cadavers, and taught by personal demonstration.To support his teaching he began to publish anatomical illustrations.The first were the Tabulae Anatomicae Sex (The Six Anatomical Pictures) printed in Venice in 1538, a compilation of drawings he used in teaching (5 ).The Tabulae became immensely popular-and were extensively plagiarized.Vesalius's main book, however, was