0:00:10 > 0:00:12We are our bodies.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18We see the outside all the time, but that's less than half the story.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24The surface. The exterior. We know far less about what's inside.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Heaven forbid that we should actually see our insides.
0:00:30 > 0:00:31Most people go through their life without
0:00:31 > 0:00:33getting a look at their organs,
0:00:33 > 0:00:34and for good reason.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38My lungs and kidneys and heart and bones and muscles,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42arteries and veins, they do their jobs unseen.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44But for the anatomists, the doctors
0:00:44 > 0:00:48and artists who have struggled for centuries to understand how
0:00:48 > 0:00:54our bodies actually work, getting inside, dissection, was vital.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59In this five-part series,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03I'll be investigating the beautiful synthesis between discoveries
0:01:03 > 0:01:06in anatomy and the works of art that illustrate them.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09As a scientist myself,
0:01:09 > 0:01:13I'm someone who is fascinated by anatomical images.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17I want to find out exactly how anatomy has inspired art,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and art, anatomy.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24And it's going to be my privilege to see some of the greatest
0:01:24 > 0:01:27works of art in the world.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35In 1537, a young man arrived here in Padua, in Italy,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37to continue his studies in surgery.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Very soon, he was teaching the subject himself.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46And the public dissections conducted by Professor Vesalius
0:01:46 > 0:01:47were a runaway success.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53So, how did Andreas Vesalius, in just seven years, go from being
0:01:53 > 0:01:57a student who stole bodies from the gibbets to being the most
0:01:57 > 0:02:00famous anatomist in the whole of Europe?
0:02:00 > 0:02:03His drawings, the benchmark for anatomical
0:02:03 > 0:02:06illustrations for hundreds of years to come.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19OK, so this is the right-hand side of the heart, and this is venous
0:02:19 > 0:02:21blood, how it gets into the heart and then back out of it again.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24And this is the aorta with oxygenated blood that's
0:02:24 > 0:02:27come from the lungs into the left...
0:02:27 > 0:02:29An anatomy class for first-year medical
0:02:29 > 0:02:31students at King's College, London.
0:02:31 > 0:02:32..around the aortic arch.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36So, I just now want to have a quick little look at an actual
0:02:36 > 0:02:37heart in relation to this.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40Demonstrator Sally Brook is using an unusual
0:02:40 > 0:02:43method of illustrating the body's internal organs to her students.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Superior and inferior vena cava.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47So, here's the superior vena cava leading in...
0:02:47 > 0:02:50But some things never change.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Here we have the instructor teaching,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and also entertaining her audience.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56..right and left ventricle.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07In the 21st century, medical schools use a variety of illustrative
0:03:07 > 0:03:10resources to help students understand anatomy.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18But the basis of their teaching remains hands-on dissection,
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and the study of real body parts.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27500 years ago in Padua,
0:03:27 > 0:03:30another anatomy teacher tried to provide his students with
0:03:30 > 0:03:34images of the human body that were both dynamic and memorable.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Andreas Vesalius was only 23
0:03:44 > 0:03:47when he started lecturing at the university here.
0:03:49 > 0:03:50He was just a kid.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54He was impetuous, he was ambitious and he was outspoken.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59But what was different about Vesalius was that he was innovative.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01He transformed dissection.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05He illustrated his anatomy lessons with large charts like a modern day
0:04:05 > 0:04:08slide show, something that no-one else had done before.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16Vesalius was also the first in his field to grasp
0:04:16 > 0:04:18the power of printing.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21His atlas of the human body, published in 1543,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24was the first complete account in words
0:04:24 > 0:04:28and pictures of the human anatomy and how to dissect it.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Artistically, it was beautiful.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37The names of all the artists are not known,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41but one theory is that the title page was the work of
0:04:41 > 0:04:45none other than Titian, the most celebrated artist in nearby Venice.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52At the Wellcome Library in London, one of the archivists is
0:04:52 > 0:04:56showing me the very first edition of Vesalius's magnificent book.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00De Humani Corporis Fabrica,
0:05:00 > 0:05:01the Fabrica for short,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04is famous not just as a work of anatomy.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08It's a multi-layered philosophy of life itself.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11And it's a true privilege to be able to see it.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Now, one of the first recipients of the Fabrica
0:05:14 > 0:05:15was the Emperor, Charles V,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19and you can see why he would've been really impressed.
0:05:19 > 0:05:25This is a hefty tome and the sheer scale of it is just knockout.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28Ah, thanks, Ross. Have a look at this poor fellow here.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31He's been stripped of all of his internal organs
0:05:31 > 0:05:34and is hanging from a rope that goes through his skull.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39What strikes you immediately about these is not just the extreme
0:05:39 > 0:05:44high quality of the drawings, but also, they're just so big.
0:05:44 > 0:05:45Have a look at this skeleton.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48He's posed. He's leaning in this slightly camp way.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Actually leaning on a spade as if he's just dug his own grave,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54and he's laughing in this rather ghoulish way.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57This is a classic memento mori.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59"Remember, you must die."
0:06:02 > 0:06:05These are part of the so-called muscle men sequence,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09and they're all in these very active poses.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12As the flesh is progressively stripped from their body,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15they actually need something to lean on to stay upright.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19They're so vivid, they're ironically lifelike.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21These images are 500 years old,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26but they're vitality just smacks you right in the face.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29But what's the message of these life-in-death figures?
0:06:29 > 0:06:32I get the posturing and how that shows off the muscles,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34but I'm sure there's more to it.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38What are these muscle men really about?
0:06:38 > 0:06:44Vivian, why does Vesalius put these men in such dramatic poses?
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Anatomy is not just about cutting up a dead body,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52it's about understanding the living body, as well.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56So, these are living skeletons, you might say.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And this is part of the importance of these plates,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02as they show the body in movement.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17So these figures are not so much posing as captured in action,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20using their muscles and their bones.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24When it came to very detailed analysis,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Vesalius clearly grasped that anyone studying parts of the body
0:07:28 > 0:07:34needed to see beyond the limitations of flat, two-dimensional drawing.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35Obviously, this is a hand.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38What's special about this particular illustration?
0:07:38 > 0:07:41It's taken from different angles, so you get
0:07:41 > 0:07:47an impression of somebody who's done the dissection on several occasions.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49So, these plates at the bottom here,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52all of which are the same set of wrist bones, but...
0:07:52 > 0:07:56But taken from different angles, so you can see how it fits together.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00It gives the impression of the body in three dimensions.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02The shading is really striking, you can
0:08:02 > 0:08:05see such 3-D relief in the bones of the hand.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12In the same way, Vesalius provides varying perspectives on the brain.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14And these drawings are so precise,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17you even get a sense of how good a dissector he was.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21So, in this one we've removed the skull
0:08:21 > 0:08:25and we're having a look underneath the meninges at the brain itself.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Here you have the beginnings of the dissection
0:08:29 > 0:08:36and he gradually reveals the brain as he cuts it up in sections.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41And it is, let us say 97-98% accurate.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44It does make me wonder how this was done, in fact,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47because that is a very clean line.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49He's an incredibly tidy dissector.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53One can feel that he has the hand of a surgeon,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56that he's both delicate and strong.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01And he has this visual sense which is extremely unusual.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03He thinks like an artist.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Even in his own lifetime, people were saying Vesalius marks a new age.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17And suddenly, this is the new anatomy.
0:09:20 > 0:09:26Andreas Vesalius was born in Brussels on the last day of 1514.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30But it was in Paris where he studied for a few years before Padua
0:09:30 > 0:09:32that he gained a reputation for being
0:09:32 > 0:09:35an extraordinarily skilled anatomist.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40It was a dark art, dissection.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43At night in Paris, Vesalius would pass out of the city gates
0:09:43 > 0:09:48and sneak up to the sites of the public gallows in Montfaucon.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52There, the bodies of executed criminals would hang
0:09:52 > 0:09:55until their rotted carcasses were taken down from the gibbet.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Vesalius used to steal body parts from these corpses.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04He and his fellow students would play a morbid betting game where,
0:10:04 > 0:10:08blindfolded, they would have to identify the bones
0:10:08 > 0:10:10using just their hands.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16He had already a reputation for being
0:10:16 > 0:10:19an excellent dissector in Paris.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23So, when Vesalius turned up in Padua in 1537,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25he was actually still a student
0:10:25 > 0:10:27and the professors then realised
0:10:27 > 0:10:28that he was actually very
0:10:28 > 0:10:30good at what he did and rushed him
0:10:30 > 0:10:32through a medical degree
0:10:32 > 0:10:39and, very quickly, got in a position to start dissecting human bodies.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Padua is one of the centres of the Italian renaissance,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47and it's home to one of the most respected
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and intellectually interesting
0:10:49 > 0:10:50universities in Italy.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52And that university has a medical
0:10:52 > 0:10:54school, but it's not a very strong
0:10:54 > 0:10:57medical school. It is seen to be somewhat conservative,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00somewhat lacking in the fields of surgery and anatomy.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04So, the appointment of Vesalius is a way for the university
0:11:04 > 0:11:06authorities to recognise and acknowledge this.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08To build up their own skills
0:11:08 > 0:11:11in classical humanist anatomy if you will.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Vesalius's principal task was to teach anatomy
0:11:20 > 0:11:24and every winter he would perform a number of dissections in public.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Now, this is a place I've wanted to visit for years.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Inside here is one of the very few surviving original
0:11:36 > 0:11:37anatomy theatres in the world.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58It was built a few years after Vesalius worked in Padua in 1594.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01But it was modelled on exactly the same principles of a central
0:12:01 > 0:12:05stage in a public auditorium that Vesalius knew.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10And it is truly stunning.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Every point in this room focuses down on what would've been
0:12:14 > 0:12:18the dissection table here, where the body was.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20Even today when you go for surgery,
0:12:20 > 0:12:22you go into what is referred to as a theatre,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25but this is a true theatre in the proper sense of the word
0:12:25 > 0:12:29to the extent that, before the dissections began,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32there were a group of musicians up at the top there
0:12:32 > 0:12:36who would play music to calm down the excitable students
0:12:36 > 0:12:38waiting for the professor to arrive.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50All society was here, ranked by tier.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53At the bottom in the expensive seats, eminent surgeons
0:12:53 > 0:12:56and physicians would mingle with nobility.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Behind them, the merchant class, and at the top, in the cheap seats,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02were commoners and students.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Everyone came to hear the words of wisdom that
0:13:05 > 0:13:08the great Vesalius would impart.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Everyone, of course, except for the lowest rank in society,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13the condemned executed criminal.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16He didn't give a damn what Vesalius had to say.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Public dissection, at the time that Vesalius is practising it,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23is absolutely public.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Just as Roman citizens flocked to the Colosseum to see extremely barbaric
0:13:28 > 0:13:32blood sports, so you get the great unwashed of Padua, as it were,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35coming along to the anatomical theatre to see perhaps
0:13:35 > 0:13:38a famous criminal being torn to pieces on the slab.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45It's an expression in many ways of state power.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49The people being dissected here are, generally speaking, criminals.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52So, it's a way for especially the Italian city states to
0:13:52 > 0:13:55show their power over the bodies of their citizens
0:13:55 > 0:13:57and especially the citizens who misbehave.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01It's also, perhaps rather strangely to our modern eyes,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04a kind of theological demonstration as well.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06If you think about Christian theology,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09God makes man in his own image.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12So, dissection is a way, just as theologians read
0:14:12 > 0:14:16the book of Scripture, dissection is a way of reading the book of nature,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19of knowing ourselves, of understanding God's purpose more
0:14:19 > 0:14:22clearly by studying the way that he has made us.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30The dissected body was evidence of divine design.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35But there was another side to the theology of the anatomy theatre.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38For the condemned criminal, this was a final punishment,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42a humiliation that engaged all of his religious fears.
0:14:43 > 0:14:44If you were dismembered,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48what prospect was there of rising whole at the Resurrection?
0:14:55 > 0:14:59By the time Vesalius started to wow his audiences in Padua,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02public dissections had been performed in Italy
0:15:02 > 0:15:03for two centuries.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06And for all that time there had been strict rules about
0:15:06 > 0:15:08how they should be done.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14At the earliest dissections there were three professionals involved.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16The man in charge was the professor.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20With the big book of anatomy, he'd read out the instructions.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23And then there was the ostensor who would stand at the side with
0:15:23 > 0:15:25a stick or a rod and point at the relevant
0:15:25 > 0:15:28bits of the corpse as the professor read them out.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31And then at the coalface there was the surgeon
0:15:31 > 0:15:34and he would make the cuts or the incisions and peel back
0:15:34 > 0:15:39the skin and the flesh to reveal the relevant organs, bones or tissues.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44But Vesalius's approach was different.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46On the title page of his great work,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50Vesalius depicts a scene just after a dissection has begun,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53albeit with rather more of a wild rumpus.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55The theatre, looking a lot like a temple,
0:15:55 > 0:15:57is absolutely crammed full of people
0:15:57 > 0:16:02and in the centre, there is a woman whose abdomen has been sliced open.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06Now, what's really interesting about this scene is that there is no
0:16:06 > 0:16:09sign of the ostensor and there is no sign of the surgeon.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12And that's because Vesalius had done away with those two positions.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15He did all three jobs himself.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19He prided himself on being a dissector.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23In the title piece of the great book, his Fabrica,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27he is doing the dissection. He's hands-on
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and this is a declaration saying,
0:16:30 > 0:16:32"I do it myself.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34"It is my observation, it's my cutting,
0:16:34 > 0:16:39"it's my knowledge that I'm specifically demonstrating."
0:16:39 > 0:16:42And he became a kind of hero in that sense, of dissection.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52In doing so, Vesalius believed he was going back the principles
0:16:52 > 0:16:56outlined by Galen, the 2nd-century Roman physician.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Galen's anatomist is the sole investigator.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04It is what his eyes see that matters.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07And that was not the only change that Vesalius made to the
0:17:07 > 0:17:10traditions of public dissection.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14So, medieval anatomists dissect the abdomen first,
0:17:14 > 0:17:15then they do the chest.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Finally they do the head, and then after that they might dissect
0:17:19 > 0:17:22the arms and the legs and the muscles and that sort of thing.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26Vesalius, however, as he always does, takes great inspiration from Galen.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Galen says any study of anatomy must begin with the bones.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35He says, "The bones are the walls of the house."
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Then you study the muscles, the ligaments,
0:17:38 > 0:17:42the nerves, the blood vessels, then you move into the great organs
0:17:42 > 0:17:45and then you move up the body and finish with the brain.
0:17:45 > 0:17:51So, Vesalius transforms medieval anatomy by taking an even older idea.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54By taking a classical idea of how you study the body in a rational way
0:17:54 > 0:17:56and making it the centre of his practice.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Vesalius wasn't content with carrying out his public
0:18:05 > 0:18:08dissections and then merely handing over the results to other
0:18:08 > 0:18:13doctors or medical students or even the nobility of Padua. No, no.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17He wanted the world to share in his discoveries
0:18:17 > 0:18:20and, naturally, to celebrate them and him.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36The answer was to create the anatomy book of the century,
0:18:36 > 0:18:38perhaps of all time.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43The Fabrica would be the largest volume on the subject yet published.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47And more accurately illustrated than any predecessor.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50And its unique selling point, every description,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54every illustration would be based on the evidence of dissection.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02The muscle men are probably the most memorable images in the book.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04And Vesalius set them in a landscape.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07As it turns out, a real one.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19These are Euganean Hills, a few miles south of Padua.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21You can just make it out in the distance over there
0:19:21 > 0:19:24and this is the exact landscape that Vesalius wanted to
0:19:24 > 0:19:29draw his muscle men in as they were progressively stripped to the bone.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39The real background emphasises the notion that these
0:19:39 > 0:19:44figures are alive in this landscape with their very precisely drawn
0:19:44 > 0:19:47flexed muscles and their classical poses.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53So, what is Vesalius trying to say with these figures?
0:19:53 > 0:19:58Are they about anatomical accuracy or has the artist idealised them?
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Every image in the history of anatomy is idealised in some way.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12But equally, there's always the question in anatomy of
0:20:12 > 0:20:15how do you depict an ideal human body?
0:20:17 > 0:20:21Individual human bodies are full of funny little imperfections.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26They don't represent the single Platonic ideal, if you like,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29of what a human being is supposed to be.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32So, I think Vesalius is using, in some ways, a more realistic
0:20:32 > 0:20:36mode of depiction, but I think the images are still idealised.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Vesalius's classical poses make me
0:20:41 > 0:20:44realise how much a man of his time he was.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47He owed a lot to Galen, but artistically,
0:20:47 > 0:20:51Vesalius's anatomy was Renaissance anatomy.
0:20:52 > 0:20:53It was based on a new spirit of enquiry,
0:20:53 > 0:20:57but also informed by classical art.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04To describe these images of the muscle men,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07he used the classical term "canonical",
0:21:07 > 0:21:11meaning they represented the gold standard for art.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13In effect, he was saying to his colleagues,
0:21:13 > 0:21:17"These are the perfect anatomical figures."
0:21:18 > 0:21:22To his medical colleagues well versed in classical literature,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26the word "canon" would have immediately reminded them
0:21:26 > 0:21:29of the ancient sculptor Polykleitos
0:21:29 > 0:21:32from the 5th century before Christ.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36Now, Polykleitos is known to have written a book called
0:21:36 > 0:21:41the Canon which spelt out the principles of harmony
0:21:41 > 0:21:44and proportions of an ideal human body.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51Polykleitos is also known to have made a sculpture also called
0:21:51 > 0:21:57the Canon, which embodied these principles of harmony and proportion.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Later artists used Polykleitos's
0:22:00 > 0:22:05Canon as a yardstick by which they measured their own craft.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Vesalius wanted his work to be seen as a descendant
0:22:09 > 0:22:12of the best of classical art.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16But was that how it came across at the time it was published?
0:22:17 > 0:22:19If I was asked what are the great functions of the Fabrica,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22I'd probably come up with a slightly cynical answer,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24or perhaps two cynical answers.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27One is to make Vesalius's reputation.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31He is doing something which is very expensive, very grand
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and very innovatory and he knew absolutely what he was doing.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38And the other shorter, snappier one is to get a good job.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45It was successful because he became physician
0:22:45 > 0:22:47to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
0:22:47 > 0:22:52and although medics didn't need all that on anatomical knowledge
0:22:52 > 0:22:55it of course put him down as the
0:22:55 > 0:22:58international star of the human body.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05I'm curious to know how far that international stardom spread.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07Did anatomists in Britain know his work?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11In fact, what was happening in anatomy in Tudor Britain?
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Well, here at the university library in Cambridge,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17there's intriguing evidence that Vesalius's
0:23:17 > 0:23:20influence had hopped across the Channel by the 1560s
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and found its way into the dissecting rooms in Cambridge.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Let me show you a book which certainly demonstrates
0:23:31 > 0:23:36the extent of the influence of Vesalius.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38It's certainly true that by Italian standards,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41English anatomists were catching up, but there's
0:23:41 > 0:23:43plenty of evidence in this book
0:23:43 > 0:23:48and in other sources to show that Vesalius and Vesalian anatomy
0:23:48 > 0:23:51was having an influence by the middle of the 16th century.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56This book was owned by Thomas Lorkin who was
0:23:56 > 0:23:59the Regius Professor of Physic, that is to say, medicine,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02at Cambridge from 1564.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04This is Lorkin's monogram
0:24:04 > 0:24:06and the price he paid for it is up at the top there.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08- How much?- Two shillings.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14And although this text dates from before Vesalius's Fabrica,
0:24:14 > 0:24:19we can see that Lorkin was bringing this text up-to-date.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Here, it says in the margin, for example, "Vesalius dicit",
0:24:22 > 0:24:25in Latin, "Vesalius says."
0:24:25 > 0:24:27And he's correcting the older text with what he's
0:24:27 > 0:24:30learnt from his study of Vesalius.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34The thing I'd like to show you particularly is this opening here
0:24:34 > 0:24:38which in fact shows the record of the first two dissections
0:24:38 > 0:24:42ever held in Elizabethan Cambridge.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47"Anno domini 1565, the 28th of March, I did make anatomy of Richard,"
0:24:47 > 0:24:50and then he crossed out Richard and put Ralph over the top,
0:24:50 > 0:24:55"Tipple at Magdalen College, continuing Wednesday, Thursday,
0:24:55 > 0:25:00"and Friday, and on Saturday morning buried him at 8 o'clock
0:25:00 > 0:25:03"being the fifth day after his hanging."
0:25:03 > 0:25:07And as you can probably also see, it's quite stained.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10So, when you say it's stained, I can see some watermarks,
0:25:10 > 0:25:13but are you suggesting that this might have been right
0:25:13 > 0:25:17next to the body itself at the first ever dissection in Cambridge?
0:25:17 > 0:25:21I think that's very likely, judging by the annotations and the state of
0:25:21 > 0:25:26the book, it looks very much as if this book was actually present at a
0:25:26 > 0:25:30messy dissection scene in Cambridge in 1565.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Crikey, that's astonishing.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41This shows that Vesalius's influence spread far and wide.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Tudor physicians like Lorkin not only knew about him,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47but applied his ideas here in Cambridge.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Vesalius's work circulated in different versions
0:25:53 > 0:25:57and some of them could be quite elaborate.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01This is called the Epitome, an abbreviated edition
0:26:01 > 0:26:05of the Fabrica for students with handy practical features.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Vesalius said what you should do is take the two plates at the back
0:26:10 > 0:26:14and cut them up because they have figures of the organs,
0:26:14 > 0:26:18and then stick them on to parchment to strengthen them
0:26:18 > 0:26:21and then you can actually mount them.
0:26:21 > 0:26:22Oh, wow.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25At the base of this is a picture of the nerve system,
0:26:25 > 0:26:31but on top of it are those cut out layers of organs and systems
0:26:31 > 0:26:36that Vesalius instructs you to attach to the nerve figure here.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42You can actually lift up each layer and go down the body...
0:26:44 > 0:26:47..and you can see they're all stuck on individually.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50And look, underneath it on the backing of the organs,
0:26:50 > 0:26:51it actually has some writing.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55That's right, this is, in effect, a medieval manuscript under here.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57It is astonishing to think that,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01at some point, a student was cutting out a piece of parchment,
0:27:01 > 0:27:03something which is probably invaluable now,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07but was the equivalent of a magazine in order to stick these pieces on.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Well, by the time this was being done, of course,
0:27:09 > 0:27:12medieval manuscripts were kind of going out of fashion
0:27:12 > 0:27:14because there were these grand new printed books
0:27:14 > 0:27:18and to have a 15th century manuscript was to have
0:27:18 > 0:27:21essentially a piece of scrap which you could use to make a mount.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29As a medical student in the 16th century, you could've used
0:27:29 > 0:27:33these to visualise what was going on...
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Anatomy advanced in a series of leaps and bounds
0:27:35 > 0:27:37throughout the 1500s.
0:27:39 > 0:27:40By the end of the century,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43it was a well respected scientific discipline.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46It might not have helped physicians overcome disease,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49but never before had the mechanics of the body,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52how the body works, been so well understood.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58The changes that took place in the 16th century were largely
0:27:58 > 0:28:03due to Vesalius, rightly called the founder of modern anatomy.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06After him, theories about the structure and functions of the body
0:28:06 > 0:28:11would only be considered reliable if they were based on evidence.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16Andreas Vesalius forced doctors to recognise the absolute
0:28:16 > 0:28:20importance of recording and personal observations,
0:28:20 > 0:28:25but done with flair and vitality and nowhere is that more present
0:28:25 > 0:28:29than in the beautiful illustrations in the pages of the Fabrica.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35That book set the gold standard for anatomy for the next 300 years.