During the 16th century in Europe, society’s views and ideas shifted, putting a large emphasis towards the field of Science. This period was known as the Scientific Revolution. For thousands of years, Europeans had accepted a man named Galen’s perception of the human anatomy. During the scientific revolution, men and women throughout society began to question Galen’s understanding of anatomy and commenced with research of their own. For the first time in hundreds of years, the dissection of human bodies had become legal, prompting anatomists to perform an excessive amount of dissections. (cite) One anatomist, in particular, fueled the desire of knowledge of human anatomy. During the Scientific Revolution, Andreas Vesalius’s studies of
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While his father was often away on business, Vesalius’s mother, Isabel Crabbe, encouraged Vesalius to follow in his father's footsteps. By the age of six, Vesalius was reading fluently and was encouraged to take full advantage of his family’s well-stocked medical library. (cite) Being born into a renowned medical family as well as being encouraged to study medicine likely influenced Vesalius’s decisions for years to come. Thirteen years later, at the age of nineteen, Vesalius was accepted into the prestigious Paris Medical School. Here his education was dominated by the works of Galen, a greek physician who had studied anatomy nearly 1300 years earlier. (cite) Intrigued by Galen’s examinations, Vesalius began to perform dissections and studies of his own. Fueled by curiosity, he began to notice multiple flaws in Galen’s observations and dedicated his life to correcting them. In multiple ways, Galen’s work predominantly influenced Vesalius’s engrossment into the field of …show more content…
Although supported by strong evidence, overthrowing the orthodox ideas of anatomy became incredibly difficult for Vesalius. In order to visually demonstrate the difference between human and animal anatomy, Vesalius published a book containing detailed drawings of the human body. This was called Tabulae anatomicae sex. (cite) Within the drawings, Vesalius changed minor details of the anatomy of a human that opposed Gallen’s perception. After these few minor changes were viewed as acceptable, Vesalius went on to later publish the book De humini corporus fabrica (cite), which offered society a new version of the human body through detailed drawings. These new drawings greatly impacted the European society. With a more accurate and detailed depiction of the human body, doctors and anatomists were able to better understand the body, as well as how to treat it. Before Vesalius revealed human anatomy to the public, the field of medicine was pure guesswork as doctors did not have a true understanding of who or what they were treating. Andreas Vesalius’s depictions of anatomy allowed mankind to inflate their knowledge of the human
While his father was often away on business, Vesalius’s mother, Isabel Crabbe, encouraged Vesalius to follow in his father's footsteps. By the age of six, Vesalius was reading fluently and was encouraged to take full advantage of his family’s well-stocked medical library. (cite) Being born into a renowned medical family as well as being encouraged to study medicine likely influenced Vesalius’s decisions for years to come. Thirteen years later, at the age of nineteen, Vesalius was accepted into the prestigious Paris Medical School. Here his education was dominated by the works of Galen, a greek physician who had studied anatomy nearly 1300 years earlier. (cite) Intrigued by Galen’s examinations, Vesalius began to perform dissections and studies of his own. Fueled by curiosity, he began to notice multiple flaws in Galen’s observations and dedicated his life to correcting them. In multiple ways, Galen’s work predominantly influenced Vesalius’s engrossment into the field of …show more content…
Although supported by strong evidence, overthrowing the orthodox ideas of anatomy became incredibly difficult for Vesalius. In order to visually demonstrate the difference between human and animal anatomy, Vesalius published a book containing detailed drawings of the human body. This was called Tabulae anatomicae sex. (cite) Within the drawings, Vesalius changed minor details of the anatomy of a human that opposed Gallen’s perception. After these few minor changes were viewed as acceptable, Vesalius went on to later publish the book De humini corporus fabrica (cite), which offered society a new version of the human body through detailed drawings. These new drawings greatly impacted the European society. With a more accurate and detailed depiction of the human body, doctors and anatomists were able to better understand the body, as well as how to treat it. Before Vesalius revealed human anatomy to the public, the field of medicine was pure guesswork as doctors did not have a true understanding of who or what they were treating. Andreas Vesalius’s depictions of anatomy allowed mankind to inflate their knowledge of the human