Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was an anatomist and physician, and is widely heralded as the father of modern human anatomy. He discovered many features of the human body, such as skeletal structure, through his pioneering first-hand dissection work.
Vesalius' discoveries were recorded in a large volume (across seven books), titled De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), which translates as 'on the fabric of the human body', and this is one of the sources that we will be looking at.
Most prominently, Vesalius' text is renowned for its correction of previous anatomical assumptions made by Galen (129-200AD), who had previously relied on animal and other nonhuman cadavers upon which to draw his conclusions about human anatomy.
The book, and Vesalius' work, for all of their medical and anatomical accomplishments, were not, of course, without considerable controversy. Although Vesalius was by no means the first physician to use human cadavers for anatomical study, the detail and intricacy of the dissection sketches in his book as a result of the presence of all artists and collaborators at the autopsies marks their striking and standout nature. On the one hand, this has assured the popularity and relevance of Vesalius' discoveries such that we remain aware of them today, but on the other hand, to a contemporary audience, the prying apart of the human body was a sacrilegious act.
The Renaissance period in which Vesalius and his team performed their work was far more sensitive to religious issues than today, and in particular among these was the doctrine of imago dei which held that humans were made in the image of God. Our bodies, in their integrity, were seen in some way as bearing the mark of their divine creator, and so to dismantle that was perceived as an overstepping of boundaries and an attempt to gain godly vision and insight. In short, there was something apparently untouchable about the sub-dermal organs, bones and muscles of the body.
Taking these concepts of bodies and their untouchability further, Vesalius' text itself was allegedly bound in human skin; admittedly this was not an uncommon practice of its time, but is certainly something unheard of today.
For more images of, and information on, Vesalius and De Humani Corporis Fabrica, see LUNA and the John Rylands special collections blog.
Scott Midson
The image above is page 204 of De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2nd folio, 3rd ed., 1555. Parkinson Coll. /2500) and is reproduced by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.
Vesalius' discoveries were recorded in a large volume (across seven books), titled De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543), which translates as 'on the fabric of the human body', and this is one of the sources that we will be looking at.
Most prominently, Vesalius' text is renowned for its correction of previous anatomical assumptions made by Galen (129-200AD), who had previously relied on animal and other nonhuman cadavers upon which to draw his conclusions about human anatomy.
The book, and Vesalius' work, for all of their medical and anatomical accomplishments, were not, of course, without considerable controversy. Although Vesalius was by no means the first physician to use human cadavers for anatomical study, the detail and intricacy of the dissection sketches in his book as a result of the presence of all artists and collaborators at the autopsies marks their striking and standout nature. On the one hand, this has assured the popularity and relevance of Vesalius' discoveries such that we remain aware of them today, but on the other hand, to a contemporary audience, the prying apart of the human body was a sacrilegious act.
The Renaissance period in which Vesalius and his team performed their work was far more sensitive to religious issues than today, and in particular among these was the doctrine of imago dei which held that humans were made in the image of God. Our bodies, in their integrity, were seen in some way as bearing the mark of their divine creator, and so to dismantle that was perceived as an overstepping of boundaries and an attempt to gain godly vision and insight. In short, there was something apparently untouchable about the sub-dermal organs, bones and muscles of the body.
Taking these concepts of bodies and their untouchability further, Vesalius' text itself was allegedly bound in human skin; admittedly this was not an uncommon practice of its time, but is certainly something unheard of today.
For more images of, and information on, Vesalius and De Humani Corporis Fabrica, see LUNA and the John Rylands special collections blog.
Scott Midson
The image above is page 204 of De Humani Corporis Fabrica (2nd folio, 3rd ed., 1555. Parkinson Coll. /2500) and is reproduced by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.