Andreas Vesalius

Andreas Vesalius (31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564) was a 16th century Flemish Renaissance physician and anatomist who published a massive groundbreaking textbook of human anatomy, entitled De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body).

De Fabrica

 * I strive that in public dissection the students do as much as possible.
 * O'Malley, p. 144


 * By not first explaining the bones, anatomists delay the inexperienced student and, because of the difficulty of the subject, deter him from a very worthy examination of the works of God.
 * O'Malley, p. 150


 * Passing over the other arts in silence, I shall speak briefly of that which concerns the health of mankind; indeed, of all the arts the genius of man has discovered it is by far the most beneficial and of prime necessity, although difficult and laborious.
 * O'Malley, p. 317


 * In our age nothing has been so degraded and then wholly restored as anatomy.
 * O'Mally, p. 320


 * I have done my best to this single end, to aid as many as possible in a very recondite as well as laborious matter, and truly and completely to describe the structure of the human body which is formed not of ten or twelve parts-- as it may seem to the spectator-- but of some thousands of different parts.
 * O'Mally, p. 323


 * ...but also perhaps you sometimes delight in consideration of the most perfectly constructed of all creatures, and take delight in considering the temporary lodging and instrument of the immortal soul, a dwelling that in many respects corresponds to the universe and for that reason was called the little universe [microcosmos] by the ancients.
 * O'Malley, p. 324



Letter on the China Root

 * I am not accustomed to saying anything with certainty after only one or two observations.
 * O'Malley, p. 201


 * I could have done nothing more worthwhile than to give a new description of the whole human body, of which nobody understood the anatomy, while Galen, despite his extensive writings, has offered very little on the subject.
 * O'Malley, p. 222