Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.

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A Moment in History

Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis (1514- 1564)

A Flemish anatomist and surgeon, Andreas Vesalius was born on December 31, 1514 in Brussels, Belgium. He is considered to be the father of the science of Anatomy. Up until his studies and publications human anatomy studies consisted only on the confirmation of the old doctrines of Galen of Pergamon (129AD - 200AD). Anatomy professors would read to the students from Galen's work and a demonstrator would point in a body to the area being described, if a body was used at all. The reasoning was that there was no need to dissect since all that was needed to know was already written in Galen's books. Vesalius, Fallopius, and others started the change by describing what they actually saw in a dissection as opposed to what was supposed to be there. 

Vesalius had a notorious career, both as an anatomist and as a surgeon. His revolutionary book "De Humani Corporis Fabrica: Libri Septem" was published in May 26, 1543. One of the most famous anatomical images is his plate 22 of the book, called sometimes "The Hamlet". You can see this image if you hover over Vesalius' only known portrait which accompanies this article. Sir William Osler said of this book "... it is the greatest book ever printed, from which modern medicine dates" 

After the original 1543 printing, the Fabrica was reprinted in 1555. It was re-reprinted and translated in many languages, although many of these printings were low-quality copies with no respect for copyright or authorship.

The story of the wood blocks with the carved images used for the original printing extends into the 20th century. In 1934 these original wood blocks were used to print 617 copies of the book "Iconaes Anatomica". This book is rare and no more can be printed because, sadly, during a 1943 WWII bombing raid over Munich all the wood blocks were burnt.

One interesting aspect of the book was the landscape panorama in some of his most famous woodcuts which was only "discovered" until 1903.

Vesalius was controversial in life and he still is in death. We know that he died on his way back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but how he died, and exactly where he died is lost in controversy. We do know he was alive when he set foot on the port of Zakynthos in the island of the same name in Greece. He is said to have suddenly collapsed and die at the gates of the city, presumably as a consequence of scurvy. Records show that he was interred in the cemetery of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, but the city and the church were destroyed by an earthquake and Vesalius' grave lost to history. Modern researchers are looking into finding the lost grave and have identified the location of the cemetery. This story has not ended yet.

For a detailed biography of Andreas Vesalius CLICK HERE.

Personal note: To commemorate Andrea Vesalius' 500th birthday in 2014, there were many scientific meetings throughout the world, one of them was the "Vesalius Continuum" anatomical meeting on the island of Zakynthos, Greece on September 4-8, 2014. This is the island where Vesalius died in 1564. I had the opportunity to attend and there are several articles in this website on the presence of Andreas Vesalius on Zakynthos island. During 2015 I also attended a symposium on "Vesalius and the Invention of the Modern Body" at the St. Louis University. At this symposium I had the honor of meeting of Drs. Garrison and Hast, authors of the "New Fabrica". Dr. Miranda

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Andreas Vesalius’ fatal voyage to Jerusalem (1)

Published: Monday, June 13, 2016 06:00 | Hits: 9486

This article was written by Maurits Biesbrouck, MD.  It is an expanded version of Dr. Biesbrouck’s  communication on the International Conference Vesalius Continuum on the Ionian island of Zakynthos (Greece) on September 5th, 2014. This study is the result of a close collaboration with Dr. Biesbrouck’s colleagues and friends Prof. Omer Steeno and Dr. Theodoor Goddeeris, as a trio nicknamed ‘Cerberus’ by Theo Dirix, then the Consul of Belgium in Athens, and co-organizer of the conference with Pascale Pollier, Mark Gardiner and Ann Van de Velde.

In this overview I will try to tell something about the reasons for Andreas Vesalius’ travel, his stay in the Holy Land, his return voyage, the cause of his death, his burial place, and his epitaph. This text contains some new details and insights since our previous publications (1).

Front cover of Barón Fernández’s Vesalius biography (1970) which contains the four letters found in the Archives of Simancas (Spain)
Title page of Barón Fernández’s
Vesalius biography (1970)

The legends

Many biographers wrote about the last months of Andreas Vesalius’ life. But because the necessary primary sources have been lacking, most of their stories should be regarded now as speculative. Thanks to the discovery of several letters in the archives of Simancas by José Barón Fernández in 1962 various points became clearer. As he presented the letters at the 19th International Congress on the History of Medicine in Basel in September of that year, it remains very strange that his important contributions remained unnoticed. Yet they were published at several instances in Spanish, a world language (2).

But first, something about the legends. The most persistent story, has it that Vesalius performed a dissection in Spain, on a nobleman whose heart was still beating when he exposed it, causing a great outcry. As a result Vesalius was condemned to death by the Inquisition, a sentence being commuted to perform a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, thanks to the intervention of Philip II, king of Spain.

There are numerous variants of this story, and anyone looking through the literature, invariably comes across one of these. Apart from this story - a legend as we must assume - here is a summary of the other so-called reasons that led Vesalius to travel to Jerusalem, according to different writers: for killing a woman; for dissecting a cleric’s mistress; because of an insatiable lust for wealth; to be away from his (quarrelsome) wife; troubles with the Galenist Spanish physicians; to escape from the tiresome Spanish Court; a promise after recovering from an illness; etc.

What is remarkable is that all these stories, without exception, only started to circulate after Vesalius’ death. It may be interesting however to look at the origin of the Inquisition story, the most tenacious one. This was caused by a short letter (merely twenty-four short rules) from Hubertus Languetus (1518-1581), a French diplomate, written in Paris on January 1st, 1565 to Caspar Peucer (1525-1602), physician and son-in-law of Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560). That was ten weeks after Vesalius’s death. Michael J. North (Head of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine) had the lucky idea to reproduce a manuscript of it (3). 

[Note: The manuscript is two pages and can be seen here: [Page 1]; [Page 2].

Here is a transcription:

De morte Vesalii ex literis Huberti Langueti, scriptis ad D. D. Casparum Peucerum anno Theos krononias 1565 Mense janu.

Fama est Vesalium esse mortuum audivisti proculdubio eum Hierosolymam esse profe ctum. Causa istius profectionis est mirabilis ut ad nos perscriptum est. Commissus erat eius curae viri nobilis in hispania, quem cum obiisse existimaret, nec satis causam mortis sibi percepisse videretur, petebat ab amicis uti sibi liceret corpus dissecare. Cumque pectus apperuisset, reperit cor palpitans. Cognati illius mortui non contenti erant illum accusare factae caedis accusarent impietatis apud inquisitionem existimantur se ibi vindictam vehementiorem assecuturos. Cum iam constaret de caede, nec tam facile excusaretur error medici tam periti, voluit omnino inquisitio de eo sumere supplicium. Vixque potuit autoritate sua vel potius precibus eum a tanto periculo eripere Rex ipse. Tandem concessum est Rei, et toti aulae pro eo deprecanti, ea conditione, ut ad expiandum illud scelus proficisceretur Jerosolymam ad montem Sinai. Vale. Datur Lutetiae calend Janu. anno a nato Christo 1565.

Translation

On the death of Vesalius, from a letter by Hubert Languet, written to doctor Caspar Peucer in January 1565 pcn. 

Rumor has it that Vesalius is dead. You undoubtedly heard of his travel to Jerusalem. The reason for his departure, as it was written to us, is remarkable. In Spain the cure of a nobleman was trust to him. Thinking he was deceased, but not convinced about the cause of his death, he asked his friends to dissect the body. But on opening the chest he found the heart beating. The relatives of the deceased, not satisfied with an accusation for the committed murder, found it necessary to accuse him of godlessness before the Inquisition to obtain a more severe punishment. Once things became clear it was not so easy to excuse that error in a man of such an experience.

In short, the Inquisition intended to execute him. The King himself hardly succeeded to withdraw him from that great danger, relying on his authority or rather on his appealing. Eventually the King, and the entire Court that was pleading for him, were given in, on the condition that he should make a travel to the Mount Sion near Jerusalem, as a penalty for that crime. All the best, Paris, January 1st, 1565.

Article continued here: Andreas Vesalius’s fatal voyage to Jerusalem (2).

Sources and author's comments:
1. Maurits BIESBROUCK, Omer STEENO. ‘The last months of Andreas Vesalius. Part I - From Monzon (Aragon) to Jerusalem’ in Vesalius - Acta Internationalia Historiae Medicinae, 2010, 16 (no. 2): 100-106, ill.; IDEM, ‘The last months of Andreas Vesalius. Part II - From Jerusalem to Zakynthos (Zante)’ in Vesalius - Acta Internationalia Historiae Medicinae, 2011, 17 (no. 1): 30-34, ill. Also Maurits BIESBROUCK, Theodoor GODDEERIS, Omer STEENO. ‘The Last Months of Andreas Vesalius: a Coda’ in Vesalius - Acta Internationalia Historiae Medicinae, 2012, 18 (no. 2): 70-75, ill..  
2.For the various publications on this subject by José Barón Fernández (and by others as well) see section ‘bibliography’ in www.andreasvesalius.be   
3. Michael J. NORTH, ‘The Death of Andreas Vesalius’ in Circulating Now, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15.10.2014, 2 pp., ill.; see http://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2014/10/15/ the-death-of-andreas-vesalius/. > Also https://www.facebook.com/nationallibraryofmedicine/ posts/10152749352150491.