Andreas Vesalius entered the history of medicine as the founder of modern anatomy. The scientist had to step over the numerous prohibitions that the church imposed on scientific research. He was even one step away from being burned at the stake of the Inquisition. From the painful death he was saved only by the intervention of strong patrons.
From the biography of Andreas Vesalius
The founder of scientific anatomy was born on December 31, 1514 in Brussels. His father was a pharmacist, and his grandfather was engaged in medicine. This largely determined the life path of Vesalius. He received a sound medical education, studying science first in Paris, then in the Netherlands.
In those days, autopsies were prohibited. Physicians derived their knowledge of anatomy from the works of Galen and Aristotle. Andreas Vesalius was the first to break this tradition. Even in his student years, he managed to get the corpse of a hanged criminal, from which he completely dissected the skeleton.
In 1537, Vesalius, who had received his doctorate by that time, began his career by starting to teach surgery and anatomy at the University of Padova. Conducting research without anatomical material was difficult. From time to time, Vesalius managed to get the corpses of executed criminals at his disposal. Often, he and his students had to steal bodies from a cemetery in Padua.
Making autopsies, Vesalius accompanied the work with sketches, while developing methods for preparing the dead. After several years of hard work, Vesalius completed a voluminous anatomy treatise. The book "On the structure of the human body" was published in 1543 in Basel. In it, the author argued that the anatomy in Galen’s presentation is erroneous, since it was based on the study of animals, not humans. Andreas Vesalius corrected more than two hundred errors of Galen concerning the structure of the internal organs of man. The publication was illustrated by S. Kalkar, a friend of Vesalius. In 1955 the world saw the second edition of the book, which for two hundred years was the only manual for medical students.
Vesalius is not only a famous theoretician, but also a practitioner in the field of medicine. He served as a court physician for the emperors Philip II and Charles V. However, the proximity to the royal people did not save Vesalius from persecution by the Inquisition. He was expected to be burned at the stake, but then the punishment was replaced by coercion to pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1564, Vesalius returned from Jerusalem. As a result of the shipwreck, the scientist was on the island of Zante. Here he ended his days on October 15 of that year.
