“De Humani Corporis Fabrica”

If anyone wanted to bequeath me a copy of _De Humani Corporis Fabrica_, from which this illustration comes, I would be much obliged.

Haha, not happening. This book from 1543 is one of the most important ever printed and not available to the likes of me and this here Instagram posse. It perfectly captures a moment in time, of a world just moving into an age of modern science and consciously rejecting past ways. Developed by physician Andreas Vesalius, _Fabrica_ contains hundreds of images of anatomically correct illustrations of the human body. Vesalius was the greatest anatomist of his age, and used the cadavers of hanged men to dissect bodies for observation.

His programmatic studies, as shown in one of the “muscle men” illustrations from _Fabrica_, meticulously depicted the relationship of skin, muscles, nerves, veins, and sinews with each other. The bodies appear aesthetically beautiful, often set in visually pleasing landscapes. Thus, the images were great art as well as good science. Vesalius was highly esteemed by educated people in Europe, and demonstrated how many mistakes the Ancients, like Galen from the Roman Empire, had bequeathed to the legacy of European medicine.

My favorite discovery by Vesalius was that there was no such thing as black bile, which everyone had thought was one of four “humors” or bodily fluids that kept human health in balance. But it is the beauty of his project which most captivates me.