History

Andreas Vesalius, Anatomist and Surgeon,
founder of modern medical science

Andreas van Wesel was born in Brussels on December 31th, 1514. His grandfather taught medicine at the Catholic University of Louvain, and was appointed as physician to the service of Archiduke Maximilien of Austria and his wife, Margarita of Burgundy. Later on, Andreas’s father became the apothecary of Carolus Quintus, Emperor of the Holy German Empire who gave him, in recognition of his distinguished services, letters of nobility and a coat of arms bearing three silver weasels – wesels in flamish – on a black shield.

As a young boy, Andries grew in an elegant house in the oldest quarter of Brussels, located in the Hellstreet near the highest point of the city, where the cadavers of bandits sentenced to death were exposed several days after capital punishment. Fascinated by this daily sight of the structure of the decomposing bodies, Vesalius began his medical studies, like all his family ancestors in the University of Louvain (1530-1533) but then moved to the University of Paris (1533-1536) which was at that time, the most renowned in Europe to learn medical sciences.

In Paris, Vesalius followed the anatomical lessons of Jacobus Sylvius and Johannes Fernel but became rapidly convinced that their teaching, based on the old Galen’s observations made on animal dissections did not fit exactly with the human anatomical reality. Therefore, he began to perform numerous dissections of human bodies although this practice was severely forbidden outside the faculty and enjoyed a poor medical reputation inside its walls, because it was mainly devoted to subordinate barbers and prosectors. Vesalius quickly acquired a precise knowledge of human anatomy and was asked by his schoolfellows to gave them private lessons where he dissected the body himself, described its morphology and illustrated his explanations by numerous drawings on the blackboard. His demonstrations gained such an outstanding interest that his master Sylvius became quickly jealous of his distinguished pupil. Fortunately, war broke out between the king of France and the Emperor Carolus Quintus and because of his Belgian origin, Vesalius left Paris and finished his medical training in Padova in 1537 . The day after he received his diploma, he was promoted to the chair of Anatomy and Surgery, where he persuived his tutorial dissections, lectures and researches on the structure of the human body.

As a result of the unique progress he made in a nearly unexplored field, he published his first scientific works, entitled Tabulae Anatomica (Padova 1538) and Institutiones Anatomicae (Venice, 1538), followed by his masterwork de human Corporis Fabrica (Basel 1543) which was dedicated to Carolus Quintus and beautifully illustrated by J.S. van Calcar, a Belgian pupil of the famous Venitian painting master, Titian.
In recognition of this outstanding contribution to medical science, the Emperor appointed him as his personal first surgeon and elected him as palatine count of the Holy German Empire. Travelling all over Europe with the armies in campaign, Vesalius served many years as military surgeon, so improving continuously his technical skills that became so famous that he was asked to care for many sovereigns and noble men of his time. In 1559, he was so called to Paris to examine Henri II, king of France, severely hurt in the face by Lord Montgomery, captain of his Scottish guard, during a chivalry tournament . The broken lance of the knight had indeed entered the King’s orbit, deep to the cranial base and Ambroise Paré asked Vesalius to help him to operate on his royal patient. In order to evaluate the danger of removing the lance and to determine the anatomical structure to be saved during the procedure, both surgeons decided to simulate the injury with substitutes of the lance fragment on a series of cadaveric heads. Then, they studied on the same material the way to remove safely the foreign body and to repair the wounded face of the King who unfortunately died of basicranial infection, several days after . Nevertheless, the next year in Toledo (1560), Vesalius succeeded to operate intracranially on Don Carlos, infanta of Spain, and saving his life, was covered in honours.
His surgical feats and medical fame however stirred up the jealousy of his colleages. Vesalius was criticized by Realdo Colombo (1510-1562), his own pupil who succeeded him in the anatomical chair of the University of Padova. Unfairly accused of having carried out experimental dissections on living human subjects, Vesalius stopped his teaching, burned several of his precious manuscripts and retired in Brussels, confining his activities to a private surgical practice. Completely disappointed by the adverse conditions he encountered in the medical community, he obtained the permission of the Emperor Philip II, son of Carolus Quintus to leave the court in order to accomplish a redemptory pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy land.

Unfortunately, his ship returning to Venice faced a terrible tempest and ran aground on the small ionic island of Zante, where Vesalius died of thyphoïd fever on October the 15th , 1564. The news of his tragic death was received in Brussels several months later, but his memory didn’t receive any homage by his peers. Since that time however, Andreas Vesalius remains considered as the foundator of Modern Anatomy and as the conceptor of the scientific approach of medical practice based upon observation, experience and critical analysis of results.
Nowadays, the Vesalius spirit still remains alive in Brussels, especially in the Catholic University of Louvain, where he learned, taught and practiced surgery for several years. The Vesalius Course initiated 10 years ago by the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department and the Human Anatomy Institute, inscribes his goals in the direct continuity of the Vesalius philosophy. Among his contributions the progress of surgical practice, it focuses his objectives on the development of a detailed knowledge of pertinent surgical anatomy, on the demonstration of advanced surgical procedures by leading experts in ENT surgery, neurosurgery and reconstructive microsurgery and on the objective critical discussion of the various controversial approach that exist to treat specific problems of multidisciplinary surgical interest.

Professor Benoit LENGELE
Chief of the of Anatomy Unit
benoit.lengele@anat.ucl.ac.be