Andreas Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius was born in Brussels, Belgium and lived from 1514-1564.

Much of the human anatomy people knew about in the early Renaissance period had been of the work of the ancient Greek physician, Galen. Vesalius figured out that Galen's research had many errors in it. This was because Galen had only dissected animals and claimed what he discovered was about the human anatomy.

Vesalius's seven volume textbook is called On the Structure of Anatomy. Today this is considered as the world's first modern textbook. His work changed medicine and is a basis for the study of anatomy. Two examples of Vesalius's discoveries are that the heart has four chambers and that the breast bone is made up of three segments.

Vesalius taught in the style of which he would allow students to watch him dissect cadavers while lecturing. This technique was used by Vesalius instead of the conventional reading of the textbook. He also hired skilled artists to create prints based on his original anatomical drawings to teach with.

1^st blank: Spanish and Italian royalty 2^nd blank: the University of Padua