Vesalius was born as Andries van Wesel to his father Anders van Wesel and mother Isabel Crabbe on 31 December 1514 in Brussels, which was then part of theHabsburg Netherlands. His great-grandfather, Jan van Wesel, probably born inWesel, received a medical degree from theUniversity of Pavia and taught medicine at theUniversity of Leuven. His grandfather, Everard van Wesel, was the Royal Physician ofEmperor Maximilian, whilst his father, Anders van Wesel, served asapothecary to Maximilian and latervalet de chambre to his successor,Charles V. Anders encouraged his son to continue in the family tradition and enrolled him in theBrethren of the Common Life in Brussels to learn Greek and Latin prior to learning medicine, according to standards of the era.[3]
In 1528 Vesalius entered the University of Leuven (Pedagogium Castrense) taking arts, but when his father was appointed as the Valet de Chambre in 1532 he decided instead to pursue a career in medicine at theUniversity of Paris, where he moved in 1533. There he studied the theories ofGalen under the auspices ofJohann Winter von Andernach,Jacques Dubois (Jacobus Sylvius) andJean Fernel. It was during that time that he developed an interest in anatomy and was often found examining excavated bones in thecharnel houses at theCemetery of the Innocents.[4] He is said to have constructed his first skeleton by stealing from agibbet.[5][4][6]
Vesalius was forced to leave Paris in 1536 owing to the opening of hostilities between the Holy Roman Empire and France and returned to the University of Leuven. He completed his studies there and graduated the following year. Hisdoctoral thesis,Paraphrasis in nonum librum Rhazae medici Arabis clarissimi ad regem Almansorem, de affectuum singularum corporis partium curatione, was a commentary on the ninth book ofRhazes.
On the day of his graduation he was immediately offered the chair of surgery and anatomy (explicator chirurgiae) at theUniversity of Padua. He also guest-lectured at theUniversity of Bologna and theUniversity of Pisa. Prior to taking up his position in Padua, Vesalius traveled through Italy and assisted the futurePope Paul IV andIgnatius of Loyola to heal those afflicted byleprosy. In Venice he met the illustratorJohan van Calcar, a student of Titian. It was with van Calcar that Vesalius published his first anatomical text,Tabulae Anatomicae Sex, in 1538.[7] Previously these topics had been taught primarily from reading classical texts, mainlyGalen, followed by an animal dissection by a barber–surgeon whose work was directed by the lecturer.[8] No attempt was made to confirm Galen's claims, which were considered unassailable. Vesalius, in contrast, performed dissection as the primary teaching tool, handling the actual work himself and urging students to perform dissection themselves. He considered hands-on direct observation to be the only reliable resource.
Vesalius created detailed illustrations of anatomy for students in the form of six large woodcut posters. When he found that some of them were being widely copied, he published them all in 1538 under the titleTabulae anatomicae sex. He followed this in 1539 with an updated version of Winter's anatomical handbook,Institutiones anatomicae.
In 1539 he also published hisVenesection Epistle onbloodletting. This was a popular treatment for almost any illness, but there was some debate about where to take the blood from. The classical Greek procedure, advocated by Galen, was to collect blood from a site near the location of the illness. However the Muslim and medieval practice was to draw a smaller amount of blood from a distant location. Vesalius' pamphlet generally supported Galen's view but with qualifications that rejected the infiltration of Galen.
In Bologna, Vesalius discovered that all of Galen's research was restricted to animals, since the tradition of Rome did not allow dissection of the human body.[9] Galen had dissectedBarbary macaques instead, which he considered structurally closest to man. Even though Galen was a qualified examiner, his research produced many errors owing to the limited anatomical material available to him.[10] Vesalius contributed to the new Giunta edition of Galen's collected works and began to write his own anatomical text based on his own research. Until Vesalius pointed out Galen's substitution of animal for human anatomy, it had gone unnoticed and had long been the basis of studying human anatomy.[8]
Unlike Galen, Vesalius was able to procure a steady supply of human cadavers for dissection. In 1539, a judge at the Padua criminal court had been interested by Vesalius' work and had agreed to regularly supply him the cadavers of executed criminals.[9][11]
Galen had assumed that arteries carried the purest blood to higher organs such as the brain and lungs from the left ventricle of the heart, while veins carried blood to the lesser organs such as the stomach from the right ventricle. In order for this theory to be correct, some kind of opening was needed to interconnect the ventricles, and Galen claimed to have found them. So paramount was Galen's authority that for 1400 years a succession of anatomists had claimed to find these holes, until Vesalius admitted he could not find them. Nonetheless, he did not venture to dispute Galen on the distribution of blood, being unable to offer any other solution, and so supposed that it diffused through the unbroken partition between the ventricles.[12]
Other famous examples of Vesalius disproving Galen's assertions were his discoveries that the lower jaw (mandible) was composed of only one bone, not two (which Galen had assumed based on animal dissection) and that humans lack therete mirabile, a network of blood vessels at the base of the brain that is found in sheep and otherungulates.
The skeleton of Jakob Karrer, articulated by Vesalius in 1543
In 1543, Vesalius conducted a public dissection of the body of Jakob Karrer von Gebweiler, a notorious felon from the city ofBasel,Switzerland. He assembled and articulated the bones, finally donating theskeleton to theUniversity of Basel. This preparation ("The Basel Skeleton") is Vesalius' only well-preserved skeletal preparation, and also the world's oldest surviving anatomical preparation. It is still displayed at the Anatomical Museum of theUniversity of Basel.[13]
In the same year Vesalius took residence in Basel to helpJohannes Oporinus publish the seven-volumeDe humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body), a groundbreaking work ofhuman anatomy that he dedicated to Charles V. Many believe it was illustrated byTitian's pupilJan Stephen van Calcar, but evidence is lacking, and it is unlikely that a single artist created all 273 illustrations in a period of time so short. At about the same time he published an abridged edition for students,Andrea Vesalii suorum de humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome, and dedicated it toPhilip II of Spain, the son of the Emperor. That work, now collectively referred to as theFabrica of Vesalius, was groundbreaking in the history of medical publishing and is considered to be a major step in the development of scientific medicine. Because of this, it marks the establishment of anatomy as a modern descriptive science.[14]
Though Vesalius' work was not the first such work based on actual dissection, nor even the first work of this era, the production quality, highly detailed and intricate plates, and the likelihood that the artists who produced it were clearly present in person at the dissections made it an instant classic. Pirated editions were available almost immediately, an event Vesalius acknowledged in a printer's note would happen. Vesalius was 28 years old when the first edition ofFabrica was published.
The Holy Roman Emperor,Charles V, who was an important patron of Vesalius
Soon after publication, Vesalius was invited to become imperial physician to the court ofEmperor Charles V. He informed theVenetian Senate that he would leave his post at Padua, which promptedDuke Cosimo I de' Medici to invite him to move to the expanding university in Pisa, which he declined. Vesalius took up the offered position in the imperial court, where he had to deal with other physicians who mocked him for being a merebarber surgeon instead of an academic working on the respected basis of theory.
In the 1540s, shortly after entering in service of the emperor, Vesalius married Anne van Hamme, from Vilvorde, Belgium. They had one daughter, named Anne, who died in 1588.[15]
Over the next eleven years Vesalius traveled with the court, treating injuries caused in battle or tournaments, performing postmortems, administering medication, and writing private letters addressing specific medical questions. During these years he also wrotethe Epistle on the China root, a short text on the properties of a medical plant whose efficacy he doubted, as well as a defense of his anatomical findings. This elicited a new round of attacks on his work that called for him to be punished by the emperor. In 1551, Charles V commissioned an inquiry inSalamanca to investigate the religious implications of his methods. Although Vesalius' work was cleared by the board, the attacks continued. Four years later one of his main detractors and one-time professors, Jacobus Sylvius, published an article that claimed that the human body itself had changed since Galen had studied it.[16]
In 1555, Vesalius became physician to Philip II,[11] and in the same year he published a revised edition ofDe humani corporis fabrica.
In 1564 Vesalius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, some said, in penance after being accused of dissecting a living person. He sailed with the Venetian fleet underJames Malatesta viaCyprus. When he reachedJerusalem he received a message from the Venetian senate requesting him again to accept the Paduan professorship, which had become vacant on the death of contemporaryFallopius.
After struggling for many days with adverse winds in theIonian Sea, he was shipwrecked on the island ofZakynthos.[17] Here he soon died, in such debt that a benefactor kindly paid for his funeral. At the time of his death he was 49 years old. He was buried somewhere on the island of Zakynthos (Zante).[18]
For some time, it was assumed that Vesalius's pilgrimage was due to the pressures imposed on him by theInquisition. Today, this assumption is generally considered to be without foundation[19] and is dismissed by modern biographers. It appears the story was spread byHubert Languet, a diplomat under Emperor Charles V and then under thePrince of Orange, who claimed in 1565 that Vesalius had performed an autopsy on an aristocrat in Spain while the heart was still beating, leading to the Inquisition's condemning him to death. The story went on to claim that Philip II had the sentence commuted to a pilgrimage. That story re-surfaced several times, until it was more recently revised.
The decision to undertake the pilgrimage was likely just a pretext to leave the Spanish court. Its lifestyle did not please him and he longed to continue his research. Given that he could not get rid of his royal service by resignation, he managed to escape asking for the permission to go to Jerusalem.[20]
About the same time he published another version of his great work, entitledDe Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome (Abridgement of the On the fabric of the human body) more commonly known as theEpitome, with a stronger focus on illustrations than on text, so as to help readers, including medical students, to easily understand his findings. The actual text of theEpitome was an abridged form of his work in theFabrica, and the organization of the two books was quite varied. He dedicated it toPhilip II of Spain, son of the Emperor.[21]
TheFabrica emphasized the priority of dissection and what has come to be called the "anatomical" view of the body, seeing human internal functioning as a result of an essentially corporeal structure filled with organs arranged in three-dimensional space. His book contains drawings of several organs on two leaves. This allows for the creation of three-dimensional diagrams by cutting out the organs and pasting them on flayed figures.[14] This was in stark contrast to many of the anatomical models used previously, which had strong Galenic/Aristotelean elements, as well as elements ofastrology. Although modern anatomical texts had been published byMondino andBerenger, much of their work was clouded by reverence for Galen and Arabian doctrines.
Vesalius'sFabrica contained many intricately detailed drawings of human dissections, often in allegorical poses.
Besides the first good description of thesphenoid bone, he showed that thesternum consists of three portions and thesacrum of five or six, and described accurately thevestibule in the interior of thetemporal bone. He not only verifiedEstienne's observations on the valves of thehepatic veins, but also described thevena azygos, and discovered the canal which passes in the fetus between the umbilical vein and the vena cava, since named theductus venosus. He described theomentum and its connections with the stomach, thespleen and thecolon; gave the first correct views of the structure of thepylorus; observed the small size of the caecal appendix in man; gave the first good account of themediastinum andpleura and the fullest description of the anatomy of the brain up to that time. He did not understand the inferior recesses, and his account of the nerves is confused by regarding the optic as the first pair, the third as the fifth, and the fifth as the seventh.
When I undertake the dissection of a human pelvis I pass a stout rope tied like a noose beneath the lower jaw and through thezygomas up to the top of the head... The lower end of the noose I run through a pulley fixed to a beam in the room so that I may raise or lower the cadaver as it hangs there or turn around in any direction to suit my purpose; ... You must take care not to put the noose around the neck, unless some of the muscles connected to theoccipital bone have already been cut away.[23]
In 1538, Vesalius wroteEpistola, docens venam axillarem dextri cubiti in dolore laterali secandam (A letter, teaching that in cases of pain in the side, the axillary vein of the right elbow be cut), commonly known as the Venesection Letter, which demonstrated a revivedvenesection, a classical procedure in which blood was drawn near the site of the ailment. He sought to locate the precise site for venesection inpleurisy within the framework of the classical method. The real significance of the book is his attempt to support his arguments by the location and continuity of thevenous system from his observations rather than appeal to earlier published works. With this novel approach to the problem of venesection, Vesalius posed the then striking hypothesis that anatomical dissection might be used to test speculation.
In 1546, three years after theFabrica, he wrote hisEpistola rationem modumque propinandi radicis Chynae decocti, commonly known as the Epistle on the China Root. Ostensibly an appraisal of a popular but ineffective treatment for gout, syphilis, andstones, this work is especially important as a continued polemic against Galenism and a reply to critics in the camp of his former professor Jacobus Sylvius, now an obsessive detractor.
In February 1561, Vesalius was given a copy of Gabriele Fallopio'sObservationes anatomicae, friendly additions and corrections to the Fabrica. Before the end of the year Vesalius composed a cordial reply,Anatomicarum Gabrielis Fallopii observationum examen, generally referred to as theExamen. In this work he recognizes in Fallopio a true equal in the science of dissection he had done so much to create. Vesalius' reply to Fallopio was published in May 1564, a month after Vesalius' death on the Greek island ofZante (now calledZakynthos).
Vesalius believed theskeletal system to be the framework of the human body. It was in this opening chapter or book ofDe fabrica that Vesalius made several of his strongest claims againstGalen's theories and writings which he had put in his anatomy books. In his extensive study of the skull, Vesalius claimed that themandible consisted of one bone, whereas Galen had thought it to be two separate bones. He accurately described thevestibule in the interior of thetemporal bone of the skull.
InGalen's observation of the ape, he had discovered that theirsternum consisted of seven parts which he assumed also held true for humans. Vesalius discovered that thehuman sternum consisted of only three parts.
He also disproved the common belief that men had one rib fewer than women and noted that thefibula andtibia bones of the leg were indeed larger than thehumerus bone of the arm, unlikeGalen's original findings.
One of Vesalius' contributions to the study of themuscular system is the illustrations that accompany the text inDe fabrica, which would become known as the "muscle men". He describes the source and position of each muscle of the body and provides information on their respective operation.
Vesalius' work on thevascular andcirculatory systems was his greatest contribution to modern medicine. In his dissections of the heart, Vesalius became convinced that Galen's claims of a porousinterventricular septum were false. This fact was previously described byMichael Servetus, a fellow of Vesalius, but never reached the public, for it was written down in the "Manuscript of Paris",[24] in 1546, and published later in hisChristianismi Restitutio (1553), a book regarded as heretical by theInquisition. Only three copies survived, but these remained hidden for decades, the rest having been burned shortly after publication. In the second edition Vesalius published that the septum was indeed waterproof, discovering (and naming), themitral valve to explain the blood flow.
Vesalius defined a nerve as the mode of transmitting sensation and motion and thus refuted his contemporaries' claims thatligaments,tendons andaponeuroses were three types of nerve units.
He believed that the brain and the nervous system are the center of the mind and emotion in contrast to the commonAristotelian belief that the heart was the center of the body. He correspondingly believed that nerves themselves do not originate from the heart, but from the brain—facts already experimentally proved byHerophilus andErasistratus in the classical era, but suppressed after the adoption of Aristotelianism by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.
Upon studying theoptic nerve, Vesalius came to the conclusion that nerves were not hollow.
InDe fabrica, he corrected an earlier claim he made inTabulae about the right kidney being set higher than the left. Vesalius claimed that the kidneys were not a filter device for urine to pass through, but rather that the kidneys serve to filter blood as well, and that excretions from the kidneys travelled through theureters to the bladder.
He described theomentum, and its connections with the stomach, the spleen and the colon gave the first correct views of the structure of thepylorus.
Vesalius admitted that due to a lack of pregnant cadavers he was unable to come to a significant understanding of the reproductive organs. However, he did find that the uterus had been falsely identified as having two distinct sections.
Through his work with muscles, Vesalius believed that a criterion for muscles was their voluntary motion. On this claim, he deduced that the heart was not a true muscle due to the obvious involuntary nature of its motion.
He also addressed the controversial issue of the heart being the centre of the soul. He wished to avoid drawing any conclusions due to possible conflict with contemporary religious beliefs.Base of thebrain, showing theoptic chiasma,cerebellum,olfactory bulbs, etc.
Vesalius disproved Galen's assertion that men have more teeth than women.[17]
Vesalius introduced the notion of induction of the extraction ofempyema through surgical means.
Due to his study of the human skull and the variations in its features he is said to have been responsible for the launch of the study ofphysical anthropology.
Vesalius always encouraged his students to check their findings, and even his own findings, so that they could better understand the structure of the human body.
In addition to his continual efforts to study anatomy he also worked on medicinal remedies and came to such conclusions as treatingsyphilis withchinaroot.
Vesalius claimed that medicine had three aspects: drugs, diet, and 'the use of hands'—mainly suggesting surgery and the knowledge of anatomy and physiology gained through dissection.
Vesalius was a supporter of 'parallel dissections' in which an animal cadaver and a human cadaver are dissected simultaneously in order to demonstrate the anatomical differences and thus correct Galenic errors.
The influence of Vesalius' plates representing the partial dissections of the human figure posing in a landscape setting is apparent in the anatomical plates prepared by the Baroque painterPietro da Cortona (1596–1669), who executed anatomical plates with figures in dramatic poses, most of them with architectural or landscape backdrops.[26]
^It was a common practice among European scholars in his time to Latinize their names. His name is also given as Andrea Vesalius, André Vésale, Andrea Vesalio, Andreas Vesal, Andrés Vesalio and Andre Vesale.
^O'Malley, Charles Donald (1964).Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564. Berkeley : University of California Press. pp. 21–27.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^O'Malley, Charles Donald (1964).Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564. Berkeley : University of California Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^O'Malley, Charles Donald (1964).Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564. Berkeley : University of California Press. pp. 203, 314.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^O'Malley, Charles Donald (1964).Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564. Berkeley : University of California Press. p. 311.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^Vallejo-Manzur F. et al. (2003) "The resuscitation greats. Andreas Vesalius, the concept of an artificial airway." "Resuscitation" 56:3–7
^Andreas Vesalius,De humani corporis fabrica (1544), Book II, Ch. 24, 268. Trans. William Frank Rich son,On the Fabric of the Human Body (1999), Book II, 234. As quoted by W. F. Bynum & Roy Porter (2005),Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations:Andreas Vesalius, 595:2,ISBN0-19-858409-1.
^The Anatomical Plates of Pietro da Cortona, Dover, New York, 1986. They were published in the 18th century. Twenty of the drawings for these plates are now in the Hunterian Library, Glasgow.
Porter, Roy, ed.Vesalius.The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Saunders, JB de CM and O'Malley, Charles D.The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels. New York: Dover, 1973 [reprint].
"Vesalius." Encyclopedia Americana. 1992.
Vesalius, Andreas.On the Fabric of the Human Body, translated by W. F. Richardson and J. B. Carman. 5 vols. San Francisco and Novato: Norman Publishing, 1998–2009.The Fabric of the human Body, Translated by Daniel H. Garrison and Malcolm H. Hast. Basel: Karger Publishing, 2013. Garrison, Daniel H. Vesalius:The China Root Epistle. A New Translation and Critical Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Williams, Trevor, ed.Vesalius.A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists. 3rd Ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1982.
Andreas Vesalius,VESALIUS projectArchived 18 February 2013 atarchive.today. Information about the new DVD "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" produced by Health Science Library of the St. Anna Hospital in Ferrara – Italy.
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