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Acta medico-historica Adriatica : AMHA, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2014.

Original scientific paper

ANDREAS VESALIUS’ CORPSES

Maurits Biesbrouck orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-1345-9075 ; Former clinical biologist at the City Hospital in Roeselare, Belgium
Omer Steeno orcid id orcid.org/0000-0002-8049-1115 ; Professor emeritus at the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain), Belgium.

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Abstract

Judging from his writings, Andreas Vesalius must have had dozens of bodies at his disposal, thirteen of which were definitely from before 1543. They came from cemeteries, places of execution or hospitals. Not only did his students help him obtain the bodies, but also public and judicial authorities. At first, he used the corpses for his own learning purposes, and later to teach his students and to write De humani corporis fabrica, his principal work. Clearly he had an eye for comparative anatomy. He observed anatomical variants and studied foetal anatomy. Occasionally, he would dissect a body to study physiological processes, while the post-mortems on the bodies brought in by the families of the deceased gave him an insight into human pathology. Some of his dissection reports have been preserved.

Keywords

History of medicine; 16th century; anatomy; pathology; corpses; Andreas Vesalius; Fabrica

Hrčak ID:

125160

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/125160

Publication date:

15.6.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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