Andreas Vesalius, a Flemish professor of anatomy at Padua, published his masterpiece in Basel in 1543, the same year as Copernicus's book on the heavens. Based on his own dissections of human bodies, rather than the animal anatomy of the ancient physician Galen, it corrected more than 200 of Galen's errors. Its large, finely detailed woodcut plates, probably drawn in the circle of Titian's workshop, set a new standard for scientific illustration. The Fabrica is considered the foundation of modern human anatomy and a landmark of the Scientific Revolution.
Before and after
- 8 December 1542Birth of Mary, Queen of Scots
- from 1543 to 1687Scientific Revolution
- 1543De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- 1543Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
- 1543Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica
- 24 May 1543Death of Nicolaus Copernicus
- from 1545 to 1648Counter-Reformation
- from 13 December 1545 to 21 February 1563Council of Trent
- 18 February 1546Death of Martin Luther
More in Science & technology
- 15 February 1564Birth of Galileo Galilei
- 24 February 1582Pope Gregory XIII reforms the calendar
- 1642Invention of Pascal's calculator
- 25 December 1642Birth of Isaac Newton
- 1654Magdeburg hemispheres
- October 1684Leibniz publishes the first paper on calculus
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.