Some Byzantine / Greek Influences on the Early Work of the Anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)

Abstract

500 years after the birth of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) it is appropriate to commemorate this first modern anatomist, doctor, scholar, and author. Different from other Vesalius-commemorations, however, we like to examine what - until the 16th century - did happen to the knowledge of anatomy as described by Galen (130-210) whose apparent “faults” were so effectively corrected by Vesalius. The intention of Andreas Vesalius - possibly after the authoritative Iranian physician and writer Rhazes (854-925 CE) - to correct Galen’s mistakes, may have been helped greatly by his initial contacts with the original Byzantine / Greek texts of Galen that had been translated by Alessandro Benedetti (1450-1512), professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the University of Padua, during his medical practice on the Greek island of Crete. This may also serve as an example of early East-West cooperation.