Andresas Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius was born December 31, 1514 in Brussels, Belgium. He died on October 15, 1564 in Zenta Greece. His nationality was Belgian. Vesalius's life work was that of an anatomist. Andreas was the founder of modern anatomy. "His major work, DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA, is a milestone in scientific progress"(1).

Andreas Vesalius was born on Dec. 31, 1514, in Brussels; he was the son of Andries van Wesele and Isabel Crabbe. Vesalius's paternal ancestors, who came from a German town called Wesel, came to Brussels in the early 15th century. There they became prominent and well known for being physicians and pharmacists. His father served as pharmacist to Margaret of Austria and later to Emperor Charles V. His great-grandfather, Johannes Wesalia, was the head of the medical school at the University of Louvain, where Vesalius started his medical studies in 1530(2).

Vesalius attended the University of Louvain and later the University of Paris.

Andreas Vesalius

From the 1543 book in the collection in National I...

The title page of the Fabrica. The full title is A...

This is where he studied from 1533 to 1536. At the University of Paris he studied medicine and developed an extremely strong interest in anatomy, this is where it all began. Then finally after grueling years of study at the University of Padua and the University of the Republic of Venice in 1537 he got his degree. This was a degree of medicine, and with this degree he obtained a job as a lecturer on anatomy and as well and lecturer on surgery. "Here during his research, Vesalius showed that the anatomical teachings of Galen, revered in medical schools, were too heavily based upon the dissection of animals (3)."

Galen was an ancient anatomist whom was born in Peramum and then studied in Smyrna and Alexandria. He was then appointed surgeons of gladiators in Peramum. " In 161 he went to Rome where he gave lectures...