Vesalius brief biography

c.1540, Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist and doctor  ©Vesalius was a Flemish-born anatomist whose dissections of the human body helped to correct misconceptions dating from ancient times.

Andreas Vesalius was born on 31 December 1514 in Brussels, Belgium, then part of the Holy Roman Empire.

He came from a family of physicians and both his father and grandfather had served the holy Roman emperor. Vesalius studied medicine in Paris but was forced to leave before completing his degree when the Holy Roman Empire declared war on France.

Vesalius brief biography wikipedia

He then studied at the University of Louvain, and then moved to Padua to study for his doctorate. Upon completion in 1537 he was immediately offered the chair of surgery and anatomy.

Surgery and anatomy were then considered of little importance in comparison to the other branches of medicine.

However, Vesalius believed that surgery had to be grounded in anatomy. Unusually, he always performed dissections himself a