MEET THE 'FATHER OF ANATOMY'

Who is he?

  His name is Andreas Vesalius. He was a 16th-century Flemish/Netherlandish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body). Vesalius is referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. He was a renaissance physician who revolutionized the study of biology and the practice of medicine by his careful description of the human Anatomy.

Where did he live?

  Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) Andreas Vesalius was born on 31 December 1514 in Brussels, Belgium, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He came from a family of physicians and both his father and grandfather had served the holy Roman emperor.

His death

    In 1564 Vesalius went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, some said, after being accused of dissecting a living body. He sailed with the Venetian fleet under James Malatesta via Cyprus. When he reached Jerusalem he received a message from the Venetian senate requesting him again to accept the Paduan professorship, which had become vacant on the death of his friend and pupil Fallopius.

   After struggling for many days with adverse winds in the Ionian Sea, he was shipwrecked on the island of Zakynthos. Here he soon died, in such debt that a benefactor kindly paid for his funeral. At the time of his death he was scarcely fifty years of age. He was buried somewhere on the island of Corfu.

   The detail above is just a brief description on the Father of Human Anatomy. If you desire to know more about him, you can do some personal research.