Andreas Vesalius was a physician and an anatomist, born in Brussels in 1514. Considered by the main authors in the field as the “father of modern anatomy”, he is credited with having advanced the science of physiology and the knowledge of the human body based on the dissection of cadavers, thereby contradicting the traditional classic technique which withdrew conclusions about the human body based on the observation of animals.
He was the physician of Emperor Charles V and king Philip II, and perhaps the most respected scientist of his time, author of a groundbreaking work for the study of modern medicine: De Humani Corporis Fabrica, the first detailed description of the human body, undertaken in 1543 with the aid of a disciple of Titian, who drew the exquisite illustrations contained therein.He was accused of heresy due to the methods used in his studies, having as a result been forced to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to rid himself of the accusations.
During the voyage he was shipwrecked and died shortly afterwards as a result. He was 50 years old. Vesalius’ ties with Portugal began as physician of king Philip II of Spain and I of Portugal, and continued due the importance that his work had in all the Portuguese classes of medicine, either through the direct reading of Latin or the partial translation into French of the equally renowned physician Ambroise Paré.
More recently, in 2011, the Portuguese Neurosciences Society, the Centre of Neurosciences and Cellular Biology, the Faculty of Medicine and the General Library of the University of Coimbra organised a presentation of the restoration and digitisation of a first edition of the work De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius (1543) which was held at the Joanina Library of the University of Coimbra. This extremely rare and precious first edition belongs to the collections of the General Library of the University. The online edition of the work of Vesalius is available at the website Alma Mater, Digital Repository of the Old Collection of the University of Coimbra.
