39 The Beginning of Anatomical Study

introduction

The Renaissance was a time of rebirth and intellectual growth that ignited curiosity and discovery across Europe. While some were creating new mechanical monsters like the printing press or the microscope, others turned their attention to the previously unexplored human anatomy. The work of Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius during the Renaissance sparked a shift toward anatomy and dissection in society, advanced medicines, and influenced countless works of art that are still praised today. As we will see, these discoveries deepened societies understanding of the scientific world around us and in turn set new standards of medical care for people around the globe.

Leonardo Davinci

Leonardo da Vinci is possibly the most well-known figure of the Italian Renaissance. He is typically remembered for his artwork, but he also made great strides in the world of anatomical discovery. During his apprenticeship in Verrocchio’s workshop, da Vinci became entranced by the workings of the human body (Heydenreich, 2018). This fascination traveled with him to the city of Milan where he dove deeper into the skeletal and muscular systems that composed the body. To do this, da Vinci conducted numerous dissections, eventually making his way into hospitals in Florence and Rome, where he ultimately dissected up to 30 corpses in his lifetime (Heydenreich, 2018). As we will discuss later, dissections were a very new idea at this time, and often considered taboo. Da Vinci’s willingness to break societal norms for the sake of scientific discovery is what allowed him to be the scientist and artist he was. Much of his art incorporated the human figure. Pictures like the famous “Vitruvian Man” and his sketches of the human fetus and a man seen below are perfect examples of how his artwork was molded by his scientific mind (da Vinci, c. 1490, as cited in Encyclopædia Britannica). These works of art are lasting and still have an impact on modern society today. Da Vinci’s innate curiosity and revolutionary approach to anatomy laid the foundations that continue to influence modern medical understanding, but he was not the only one.

Andreas Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius is possibly less known but no-less influential figure in the development of the anatomical sciences during the Renaissance. Vesalius was raised into the scientific world, with his family consisting of physicians and pharmacists. He ended up going to the University of Paris, where he started his own path of dissection, first on animals. Heydenreich mentions in Brittanica that Vesalius also “devoted much of his time to a study of human bones, at that time easily available in the Paris cemeteries.” (Florkin, 2018). We can see Vesalius’ extreme desire to learn by going to the extreme of unearthing human corpses to study what had never been studied before. Vesalius gained his doctoral degree in medicine from the University of Padua and began teaching his anatomical findings through public demonstrations. Through these dissections, Vesalius created his own theories about he human body that contradicted the predominant theories at the time. He discerned that the theories of Galen, which had been derived only from the dissection of animals, were incorrect and set out to correct them (Florkin, 2018). He wrote and published the first book on western anatomy,