Andreas Vesalius was one of the most important figures in science and medicine during the Renaissance. His most renowned work, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, printed in 1543, was one of the first accurate sources on anatomy to which people had access. Through analysis of the goals of Vesalius's work, as well as printing and art during the Renaissance, we can see the reason for and the techniques behind its publication. The Fabrica undoubtedly changed the future of medicine by being the first complete, accurate work on anatomy, however its success would not have been possible without specific developments of artistic expression and printing during the Renaissance aiding in its composition and distribution. Plate 22, known as the Skeleton illustration, in Book I of the Fabrica is a manifestation of these elements, and also shows the influence that the Fabrica had on Renaissance medicine.

Vesalius's goal in creating the Fabrica was to place text in conjunction with illustrations in order to show what he had learned through dissections of the human body.¹ The Fabrica was a collection of Vesalius's textual and visual notes that discussed and showed the body, broken down into various systems. Vesalius wanted to show that in a field such as anatomy, one could learn more through the observation of nature than through the reading of books alone. Vesalius's most important predecessor in the field of anatomy was Galen, a Greek physician, who studied apes and other animals. Galen had composed his work on anatomy without ever dissecting a human, therefore many of his claims, although accepted by the medical field from the second century on, were false.² Vesalius attempted to Clarify Galen's erroneous claims through his publication of the Fabrica.

We see in Book I of the Fabrica the way in which the history of the development of anatomy, Galen's work specifically, is pertinent to Vesalius's work. Book I is the description of the human skeleton and is one of the most accurate accounts in the book. The simple explanation for its accuracy is that bones are more permanent than any other part of a corpse; they do not decay as rapidly as do soft tissues.³ This explains why Vesalius could take his time in analyzing them and give an accurate account. It is in Book I that Vesalius found a substantial error in Galen's assessment of the skeleton. Galen claimed that the sternum has seven parts; Vesalius realized that in fact there are only three parts to the adult human sternum.⁴ Vesalius later realized that apes have a sternum composed of seven bones, and was confident in his hypothesis that Galen had been performing anatomical studies on apes.

The Fabrica's composition was greatly effected by changes occurring in art during the Renaissance. The actual illustrations are woodcuts, and we know that Vesalius was not the only artist. Some believe that the book was a collaborative effort of several artists who came from the "school of Titian."⁵ We see a great difference between how Renaissance artists portrayed the body and the body as it had been depicted in the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, drawings, paintings, and sculptures were not extremely realistic because religious authorities were setting the tone of art. They discouraged realistic images because the body was not considered an area that should be examined closely. During the Renaissance, however, religion became more tolerant of realism, hence new approaches to art emerged. Artists studied human form carefully for their creations, and new types of perspective emerged through developments in math and science that were incorporated into art; these aided in the creation of more naturalistic representations. Also, woodcut techniques were changing because of new inventions. For example new tools were developed, which made the lines in woodcuts smoother, connected them more fluidly, and allowed for more intricate detail. On the changes in Renaissance art, Saunders and O'Malley state:

The illustrations in the Fabrica were effected by these factors because the Renaissance artists who helped draw the various plates were familiar with these compositional techniques and used them in their own personal work as well as in the Fabrica. The Skeleton, which is referred to as plate 22 and appears in Book I, is an illustration of the complete skeletal system. The skeleton's proportions were later modified in Vesalius's book Epitome, which was a more accurate version of the Fabrica. Plate 22 illustrates both anterior and posterior views of the human skeleton, as well as the base of the skull; the artist has drawn the skeleton resting his head on his right hand so one can see this feature of his body.7 Here we see that the image of the skeleton was drawn so that it could illustrate specific aspects that corresponded to the information that Vesalius wanted to convey. In other words, the form of the illustration is a product of Vesalius's intentions. Vesalius juxtaposes the illustration and text; the skeleton's bones are numbered then explained on the next page.

Plate 22 is a concrete example of the art that was being produced during the Renaissance. The skeleton is drawn extremely naturalistically, because his bones are for the most part correctly proportioned. Even the smallest bones, like those of the joints, are drawn with precision. The artist uses various shading techniques, known as hatching and double hatching, to emphasize different bones, which makes the illustration more dynamic. The scene that surrounds the skeleton is also drawn realistically. The skeleton is standing on a mound of dirt, and is clearly meant to be outside. One can see branches, roots, and leaves protruding from the ground, emphasizing nature in his surroundings. This makes that plate extraordinary because it seems more like an independent work of art, rather than an instructional image necessary to explain the text. The image meets the standard of the mid-sixteenth century because not only does the skeleton appear naturalistically, but also he is placed in a natural setting. His placement was deliberate on the part of the artist, whose intention was to make the plate conform to the accepted style of the time.

Another Renaissance technique that aided in the triumph of Vesalius's book was the usage of printing to reproduce it. Without printing, Vesalius's book could have never been so successful.⁸ The key to making advances in science and medicine was a combination of the discoveries that were made and the transmission of the knowledge. Without a mechanism for spreading material, information was in a sense useless because it was not accessible to those who could benefit from it. Printing allowed the Fabrica to be produced in greater quantities than Galen's work had been, thus students of anatomy, who wanted an accurate anatomical source, were able to buy it and refer to it for information.⁹ The replication of Plate 22 is significant, because those who were seeking knowledge about the skeletal system now had an accurate diagram to which they could refer. The Fabrica's publication in general was helpful to many people, anatomists as well as others, because those who had the privilege to view the various images in the book would be able to learn more about their bodies, thus aiding in the process of scientific development. Long after the publication of the Fabrica we see other anatomists emerge, continuing Vesalius's legacy, their works making new anatomical claims. These works too were printed and distributed, and all of these books together were the materials that created a basic anatomical for the sixteenth century and the future.¹⁰

Clearly we can see that Vesalius's book, the Fabrica, was a ground breaking instructional work. It not only clarified erroneous claims that had been made about anatomy, but also it was a concise, accurate reference material. In conjunction to this, the time in which the Fabrica was produced, the mid-sixteenth century, was a key factor in its success. Developments in figural representation during the Renaissance allowed for instructional, yet naturalistic portrayals of the body. The process of printing allowed for reproduction of the work, which increased access to Vesalius's discoveries. We can see all of these aspects manifest themselves through the analysis of Plate 22, the Skeleton from Book I of the Fabrica. It shows the accuracy of Vesalius's work through an image, which was essential to understanding the information presented. Vesalius's work is amazing because it served so many functions, however, an interesting question we must ask ourselves is had Vesalius's work never been published, would medical science have developed in the same manner?

Bibliography

O'Malley, Charles Donald. Andreas Vesalius Of Brussels, 1514-1564. California: University Of California Press, 1964.

O'Malley, Charles D. and Saunders, J.B. de C.M. The Illustrations From The Works Of Andreas Vesalius Of Brussels. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1950.

Tarshis, Jerome. Andreas Vesalius, Father Of Modern Anatomy. New York: The Dial Press, Inc., 1969.

Sarton, George. The Appreciation Of Ancient And Medieval Science During The Renaissance. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 1955.

Vesalius, Andreas. Britannica Online: Macropaedia. 1988. Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available:  HYPERLINK http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/621/59.html. 20 October 1998.