Anatomy 101: Vesalius and Van Calcar.

Anatomical knowledge, or the study of the structure of the human body, was something quite uncommon, and even forbidden, in the early days of scientific exploration and scholarship, where bloodletting was academically considered as a cure for various deseases. It wasn't until Andreas Vesalius had published his seven volume 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica' ('On the fabric of the human body') in 1543, that the human body and it's parts were mapped out and their functions described (although still, not always correctly). Today, Vesalius is considered the father of Anatomy and his work, which marked the beginning of modern science, stands as one of the greatest treasures of the Renaissance (it was in fact, one of the most expensive books published at the time, only available to a select few).

Vesalius was born in Brussels in 1514 and was commonly known under his birth name, Andries van Wesel. Of Dutch ancestry, his family originally lived in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands. His father and grandfather, both named Everard, great-grandfather John and even great-great-grandfather Peter, had all studied medicine at various European Universities and worked for the absolute prominent European aristocrats of the day. Vesalius soon followed the family tradition and studied at the University of Louvain (Leuven), where his great-grandfather taught medicine, the University of Paris, and finally the University of Padua, in Italy, where he became a professor teaching anatomy, something which was traditionally done by disecting monkeys. Vesalius made many drawings of his disections which caught much attention and soon was given the privelege to start disecting executed criminals.

The University of Padua is one of the oldest Universities of Europe, founded in 1222, it was an institute known for it's intellectual importance and progressive thinking. It was under the rule of Venice, and it was there that Vesalius would meet Jan Stefan van Kalkar (aka Van Calcar), a German artist who had entered the school of Titian 1536 and would contribute his now famous pen drawings in several of Vesalius'  works.

About van Calcar's descent: His birthplace Cleves ('Kleef') today lies just outside the border of the Netherlands, making him a German artist these days. But at the time of his birth, in 1499, this was not the case. Also remember, illustrations of human anatomy had never been published before that time with such a degree of detail.

In 1537, Vesalius was awarded the title of Doctor of Medicine and Professor of Surgery at the age of merely twenty-three. The next year, their first collaboration provided students with six detailed anatomical illustrations, today known as the 'Tabulae Anatomicae Sex', which were plagiarised throughout the whole of Europe instantaneously.

The seven volumes of the 'Fabrica' all cover their own territory of the human body. The first book describes the bones and interconnecting ligaments, book two describes all the ligaments and muscles as 'instruments of voluntary and deliberate motion' while the third describes the veins and arteries. Book four goes into the nerves, book five specifically talks about 'the organs of nutrition and generation' (reproduction system) The last volumes, books six and seven, go on to describe the heart and the organs serving the heart (lungs) and finally the Brain and the organs of sense.

Above: beautiful introduction illustration for the title page of Vesalius' 'Fabrica' by Jan Van Calcar. Please click to enlarge to it's full size. In the middle you can see Vesalius performing a disection amidst a crowd of students and even a pickpocket (on the right).

 The first two books of the 'Fabrica' were completed in 1541. Van Calcar's drawings were cut in wood and used for printing by Johannes Oporinus in Basel, Switzerland, the chief publishing center of Europe at that time. Beside the seven volumes of the 'Fabrica', Vesalius also published the 'Epitome', a companion piece to the series, which is almost a reprint of the 'Tabulae', with six chapters and nine illustrations titled 'Andreae Vesalii suorum de humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome'.

Below a collection of the Van Calcar's illustrations as published in the 'Fabrica'. Click to enlarge the images to their full size. Below are plates 21, 22 and 23 from the osteologic series from Volume I. Depicted are the anterior, delineation from the side and the anterior of a full human skeleton.

Below: From Book II, again, several views of the human body, now without the skin fat tissue, sinews, veins and arteries, exposing all muscles. The full series consists of 19 detailed illustrations, here's a few of them. 

Below you can clearly see that for this illustration the body was suspended with a rope and bolted on to a wooden beam to keep it in an upright position.  

Below, all the major muscle groups indentified in this illustration portraying the posterior surface or backside.

Below, two illustrations from Book III which describes the veins and artiries.

'Fabrica' reprinted.

In 1555, the 'Fabrica' was reprinted and a second, revised edition was published. Recently, Dr. Gerard Vogrincic, who is a collector of rare books, purchased an original edition of the 'Fabrica' and found that it was full of annotations by the previous owner. Digging up some of the rare handwritten documents of Vesalius on the internet proved his suspicions to be true: The sheer amount of annotations in Latin in his copy were just too much to be of some avid collector.

With the help of Dr. Vivian Nutton, Emeritus Professor at the UCL Center for the History of Medicine, it was proven beyond a doubt that the annotations were written by Vesalius himself for a new, third edition of the 'Fabrica' that unfortunately, was never published. Until now that is! Daniel H. Garrison and Malcolm H. Hast have teamed up with Karger Publishers to create a new version of the 'Fabrica', in English, celebrating Vesalius 500th aniversary. The book will be published in 2013 and will cost € 1250,00 Euro's (Pre-orders will be handled until September of this year). Check here for more information on this new edition or go here for the full exiting personal story of Dr.Vogrincic and his incredible discovery!