title: [Andreas Vesalius: his rich imagination and colorful detail account in his book: 'Research of the anatomical observations of Gabriel Falloppius'].
abstract: In a long letter, Andreas Vesalius reacts to the comments made by Gabriel Falloppius to his work 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica'. In this letter, he proves Falloppius wrong in a number of assertions and corrects him on more than one occasion. In doing so, Vesalius as a renaissance humanist uses a classic Latin language with long elegant sentences in the style of the old Roman orator Cicero. Remarkably interesting is the fact that this whole argumentation is spiced with comparisons and examples from daily life. To make it clear to the reader what a certain part of the skeleton looks like, he compares this part with an object everybody knows. All parts of the human body are depicted in such an almost graphic way that even an interested reader without any medical or anatomic education can picture them. And Vesalius is very creative in doing so, an artist as it were with a very rich imagination. Moreover, it's remarkable how the famous anatomist manages to put himself on the level of any ordinary person, using comparative images on that level. This last work of Vesalius, which he himself considers to be a supplement to his De Humani Corporis Fabrica, deserves special attention, not only because it illustrates the scientific evolution of the anatomist Vesalius, but also because it offers an insight in the psychology of that fascinating scientist Andreas Vesalius.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gilias
mesh_terms: D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history*; D000716:Anatomy, Artistic / Q000266:history*; D001271:Atlases as Topic / Q000266:history*; D001530:Belgium; D049669:History, 16th Century; D006801:Humans; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history*