Category Archives: Galileo and the Health Sciences

Andreas Vesalius, Epistola (Basel, 1546) ABC’s of the life of medical students: The decorative initials used in this edition of Vesalius’ correspondence are identical to 22 different initials originally printed in De fabrica (1543). Such “historiated initials” tell stories.  Little … Continue reading →

Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1555), 2d ed. This book is without doubt the most handsome anatomical work of the 16th century. A dozen “muscle men” walk through its pages, removing skin and organs layer by layer, like … Continue reading →

Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543) Best known work of early modern anatomy: Vesalius was fortunate to team up with Jan Stephan van Calcar, a remarkable artist. Even the human skeletons reveal an aesthetic appreciation of the human … Continue reading →

Charles Estienne, De dissectione partium corporis humani (Paris, 1545) Clip art with woodblocks: Estienne obtained a number of woodblocks from an obscure artist. To show anatomical detail, he cut little rectangles out of the art woodblocks and substituted his own … Continue reading →

Medieval human dissection manual: Written in 1316 by a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, the Mondino dei Luzzi, Anothomia (Venice, 1507) Anatomy of Mondino was the most widely-used manual for human dissection in the middle ages. To … Continue reading →

Mondino dei Luzzi, Anatomia (Marburg, 1541), ed. Johann Dryander Art and anatomy converge in an illustrated manual: These human figures are more than utilitarian: walking against a real background, posed as if revealing to our eyes the unseen beauty and … Continue reading →

John Gerard, The Herball (London, 1636), 3d ed. Nutrition from the Americas: Gerard, an estate manager for Queen Elizabeth’s chief executive, was in contact with naturalists around the world who sent him both plants and soil to grow them in.  … Continue reading →