De humani corporis fabrica

1555

Monro Collection M306

[Basel: Joannis Oporini]

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) is the Latinized name of Flemish-born anatomist and physician Andries van Wezel. Vesalius taught at Padua University in Northern Italy where he instructed in anatomy and surgery and dissected corpses during classes for the increased benefit of his students learning, a practice traditionally frowned upon. His hugely influential anatomical treatise De humani corporis fabrica (‘On the structure of the human body’), published in 1543, was highly regarded for the meticulous attention to detail in its engravings and it contained the first published true to life depictions of the complex anatomical structure of the human body.