Rome, Italy

“I will pass over the other arts in silence and direct my words for a while to that which is responsible for the health of mankind; certainly of all the arts that human genius has discovered, this is by far the most useful, indispensible, difficult, and laborious.” – Andreas Vesalius, De Humani Corporus Fabrica

The world mourns the loss of a brilliant scholar after reports of his disappearance have been confirmed. Andreas Vesalius, anatomist and scientist, died of unknown causes several weeks ago. He was returning from his exile to the Holy Land when storms beset his return. His ship was stranded in the sea for forty days, when he became ill and died soon after making landfall. He leaves behind his wife and daughter (1).

Vesalius was born into a medical family that provided a strong background for his development. He studied at the Castle School of the University of Louvain, studying rhetoric, philosophy, and logic. By 1533 he began to think about medicine, and went to Paris to study at the leading medical school north of the Alps. It was there that Vesalius learned anatomy, taught from the works of Bolognese professor Mondino de’ Liuzzi. Vesalius participated in public dissections and was often involved in discrete “grave searches” for various skeletons for examination (1). During this time Vesalius studied under the great men, Jacob Sylvius and Guinterius (2).

Vesalius then moved back to Louvain for a short time where he published his first book, a commentary on the “Almansor” of Rhazes. From there he traveled to Italy, where he attended the practice of a hospital in Venice. Vesalius made observations on the China-root during his tenure at this hospital, and published a monograph of this subject in 1546. Around this time he also visited the school in Padua. By the time he was 24 years old, Vesalius was the chair of surgery and anatomy at Padua’s medical school. In this capacity he was able to begin the task of attempting to accurately describe every part of the human anatomy, complete with illustrations. Within four short years he was finished with De Humani Corporis Fabrica, translated On the Fabric of the Human Body. Vesalius took everything Galen studied and expanded it. The illustrations and descriptions were far greater in detail than anything else before it. Thanks to the advent of the printing press, this work was now easily reproducible and readily preserved (2).