In the early 1500s, medical schools in Europe taught anatomy using the methods of the 2nd-century Greek physician Galen (AD 129–216). Students and professors rarely performed dissections themselves, instead simply reading from and trusting Galen’s ancient texts. That is, until a Belgian-born anatomist in Padua, Italy, dramatically rejected Galen and insisted that doctors must perform their own dissections to learn how the body truly worked.

Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) began his career as a believer of Galen’s teachings. But unlike most professors of the time, he developed a habit of dissecting corpses himself to show students anatomical details. (Most lessons of the time involved a professor reading from Galen’s texts while a surgeon stood by with the body of an executed criminal on which to show the relevant body parts.) But Vesalius was mystified when he found that several basic anatomical facts, like the number and relative size of bones, where often wrong in Galen’s writing. Eventually, Vesalius came to the realization that Galen, the source of authority in Western medicine for more than a thousand years, had never actually dissected a human body. Because religious law had not allowed such a practice, Galen had based his writings on the anatomy of cattle, primates, and other animals.

For the next 4 years, Vesalius worked on his masterpiece: a collection of works completed in 1543 and titled De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, or The Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body, commonly known as the Fabrica. This was the first profusely illustrated record of human anatomy and included detailed drawings of bodies with their skin stripped away—muscles, tissues, and bones exposed—in lifelike poses, such as walking, leaning against a table, and hanging from a noose.

The exquisite art and bold medical theories in Fabrica made Vesalius famous across Europe—he was later made a count by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500– 1558)—and contributed to a profound medical and intellectual shift across Europe. Vesalius had proved that the ancient texts were fallible and that doctors should trust their own observations and experiments. Vesalius himself died on a Greek island during his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Early in his career, Vesalius made a name for himself by drawing detailed anatomical charts of the circulatory and nervous systems for his students to study. The criminal court judge of Padua took interest and made sure Vesalius had a steady supply of cadavers from the gallows.
  2. Though it’s known today that Galen himself emphasized the importance of personal observation (as opposed to the blind following of ancient texts), this detail seems to have been lost in the many translations of his work by the time it reached 16th-century Europe.
  3. Controversial modern-day exhibits such as Bodies: The Exhibition and Body Worlds, which display plasticized human cadavers in lifelike poses, have been called continuations of Vesalius’s work.