Vesalius
Vesalius revolutionised anatomy. Dissecting in
person, inventing or borrowing new instruments at need, he
inventing much of the technique (for instance, the mounting of skeletons) which is still used.
The feature
of his book De Fabrica Corporis was its wonderful illustrations. In the Middle Ages there had
arisen a
tradition of manuscript anatomical sheets. These were what we should call mere diagrams, the body being
shown in a squatting posture with indications of the correspondence of the parts of this " microcosm
" with
those of the " macrocosm " (the universe). Bones, muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, and sometimes
reproductive organs, were put on separate diagrams. They were grossly inaccurate, but the point here
is
rather that they were diagrams, not naturalistic plates. These latter were the innovation of Vesalius
in
anatomy and of the " German fathers " in botany. It was an essential advance, but it must
be noted that it
was only a preparatory one. At the present time, both kinds of illustration are used, diagrams having
returned for many purposes.
In the illustrations drawn for Vesalius there is
no lack of life ; but this is itself due to a touch of the
abstract—to the vivid sense of the body as a living, functioning whole which is impressed on them.
This
Renaissance perception was not far from the modern ideas of organism. It was also beginning to be develop
to two related ones : the growth of the individual —embryology— and the comparison of man
with other
animals—comparative anatomy.
