Andreas Vesalius: The Making, the Madman, and the Myth

Stephen N. Joffe

Mar 2014 · AuthorHouse

About this ebook

Andreas Vesalius 1514-1564 By Stephen N. Joffe, M.D. Vesalius was the foremost pioneer of modern anatomy. Born in Brussels, he came from a family of physicians. Educated in Louvain, he studied medicine in Montpelier and Paris, returning to Louvain to teach anatomy. In 1535 he went to France to be an army surgeon to King Charles V and two years later became a professor of anatomy in Padua, Italy. Subsequently he became a physician to the court of Philip II of Spain. On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he received a call to return to Padua to occupy chair of Fallopius. In a storm leading to a shipwreck and subsequent death on the Isle of Zante, Vesalius was buried there in an unmarked grave in 1564. This marked the end of the ‘prince of anatomy.’ Vesalius’ book De Humani Corporus Fabrica published in Basel in 1543, contributes one of the greatest treasures of western civilization and culture. With its companion volume the Epitome, began the modern observational science and research.

About the author

Stephen N. Joffe, BSc, MB.ChB, MD, FACS, FCS (SA), FRCS (Edinburgh), FRCS (Glasgow), is past Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of LCA-Vision. Nasdaq: (LCAV) in valuation. He was the founder of the Company’s corporate predecessor, Laser Centers of America, Inc., and served as its Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. He is presently the Chief Executive Officer of the Joffe Foundation, a non-profit charity and Co-Chairman of Joffe LLC, a healthcare services company and a Board of Trustees member of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition, Stephen is an Esteemed Quondam Professor of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, a position he has held since 1990. He has held faculty appointments at the Universities of London, Glasgow and Cincinnati, and holds fellowships of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He has published 200 articles in peer reviewed and scientific journals and 40 chapters for books, including being author and editor of 9 books on lasers and their application to medicine and surgery and history of medicine.