Vesalius
Ve·sa·li·us (və-saґle-əs) Andreas, 1514–1564. Flemish physician and professor of anatomy in Padua, Italy; in 1543 he produced his De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body), which founded the modern science of anatomy. Following Galen's exhortations to dissect and observe, Vesalius dissected and observed and overthrew Galen's anatomy, which was founded on nonhuman dissection. Vesalius standardized anatomical nomenclature and made important contributions in osteology and myology; in cardiology he rejected Galen's doctrine of the pervious septum. The flood of criticism for the old orthodoxy and against Vesalius drove him from Padua to Spain, where he became physician to Emperor Charles V.
Medical dictionary.
2011.