Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. We can't not talk about Andreas Vesalius. He was a sixteenth century Flemish anatomist whose work revolutionized the study of the human body. And he was able to do so because he was also a body snatcher, who used his hands on observations to publish groundbreaking, forward thinking works about how our bodies function. And in doing so, this body snatcher became the father of modern anatomy.
Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria tru Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. First, a little administrative detailed to noon. Andreas Vesalius is actually the Anglicized form of the Dutch name Andre's von Vizel. It was a common practice among European scholars during the sixteen century to anglicize their names, and you might see his name with many other spellings and pronunciations. We have encountered six other versions during research, and we are confident
we did not find them all. We're going to refer to him by his commonly used name, Andrea's Vesalius, and with that out of the way, Andreas was born, as we said, Andrey's van Vesel on December thirty one, fifteen fourteen, to Anders von Wiseel and Isabel crab in Brussels, which
at that point was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. Andreas had two brothers and a sister, and when he was thirty, after finishing medical school, he married a woman named and van Hama, the daughter of a wealthy counselor of Brussels. The couple welcomed a daughter, also named am in fifteen forty five. The von Vosso family was full of physicians and pharmacists. The sands is great grandfather, Yawn, taught medicine at the University of Luven. His grandfather, Averard, was the
all physician of Emperor Maximilian. His father, too was a healer and served as apothecary to Maximilian and later Valet de Champ to its successor, Charles. The fifth Andreas family encouraged him to follow in the family tradition, and he did and with great success. The sixteenth century has often been called the century of anatomy, kind of perfectly nicknamed
for Andreas's time. During his primary years, he attended the Brethren of the common Life in Brussels, at the age of fifteen, he enrolled in the University of Luverne, which we know today as the Old University, attending from fifteen nine till fifteen thirty three. Andreas studied at least initially the arts, including rhetoric, philosophy and logic in Latin, Classical, Greek and Hebrew. At the Collegium Trilingue, Andreas became interested in anatomy and surgery and showed skill in those areas.
He soon acted as the de facto anatomy instructor on an in for normal basis, demonstrating anatomical dissections to his fellow students. After receiving his bachelor's degree in medicine in fifteen thirty three, he continued his studies at the prestigious medical school at the University of Paris. While in Paris, Andreas studied under famous physicians and anatomists, including French anatomist Jacobus Silvius and Johann Gunther Von Andernach, an osteologist and mycologist.
Said Johan of his pupil, quote, the Salius is a young man of great promise, possessing an extraordinary knowledge of medicine, proficient in Latin, and Greek, and very skilled in dissection of bodies. It was in Paris for Andreas was first given the opportunity to dissect a human cadaver. It's probably actually safe to say cadaver's plural in this instance. During this time he devoted much of his study to human
bones and the skeletal system. In fact, in his own words, he has said the following about body snatching for his education quote, the cemetery of the Innocence in Paris was where I began my study of bones, in company with Matteis Terminus. There we found a rich supply of bones, which we examined over a long period until we were able to make a bet with our fellow students that blindfolded we could identify by touch alone any bone which they pulled from the piles over a half an hour
period and handed to us. We were forced to these links because, though eager to learn, we had no teachers to assist us in this aspect of medicine. Andreas left Paris though before he graduated, but not because of any academic failing. While he was studying at the university, the Italian War, which spanned fifteen thirty six to fifteen thirty eight broke out. This was a conflict between King Francis the First of France and Charles the fifth Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and a lot of it
was fought in France. Andrea's returned to the University of Leuven and in early fifty seven transferred to the Universe of Padua in what was then the Republic of Venice. At the time Andreas enrolled, the university was known to have a progressive medical program with a strong emphasis on anatomical dissection. It was a famous center of medical education
during the Renaissance. It said at one time the anatomy college brought in a troop of musicians to play throughout a dissection to set the right kind of sober scene. At Patua, he performed several human anatomical dissections and analyzed at least two skeletons in the spam of just one year. Andreas received his Doctor of Medicine degree with highest distinction in December of fifty seven, and just one day after his graduation, the Senate of Venice nominated vi Salius as
Professor of Surgery at the University of Padua. He accepted the position and was responsible for lecturing in surgical topics as well as giving anatomical demonstrations. We're going to take a brand for word from our sponsor now and when we return, will share Andreas's advice to would be body snatchers. Welcome back to Criminalia. Andreas Phuslias wasn't shy about criticizing his teachers for studying the carcasses of cats, dogs, and
pigs rather than humans. Let's talk about how a little body snatching could go a long way when you study anatomy. As Alius was one of the first physicians to accurately record and illustrate human anatomy based on his own findings from autopsies and dissections. His work directly led to improved understanding of the human body as well as enhanced surgical techniques.
We've spoken throughout this entire season about surgeons and physicians interested in human anatomy who employed grave robbers so they could get their jobs done. Some engaged in body snatching themselves. The Salius was the latter. He felt strongly that book learning alone could not be enough, and that verifiable evidence should take precedence over written text. There's a story that says he snatched a body while he was a student in Paris, just so he could have a skeleton for
reference in his work. Before the Salius came on the scene. An anatomical lecture and dissection kind of looked like this. A professor sat in the chair teaching from a textbook. Concurrently, a surgeon would perform the dissection, and students sat around and observed. There was no divergence from the text. The Salius, on the other hand, accomplished his work by not reading about bodies, but by snatching bodies from local graves and
directly studying them. He often led his own students to the graveyard, imparting his grave robbing knowledge along the way. It was smart. He told them to keep an eye on any terminal patients in public hospitals. He taught and encouraged his students how to acquire a set of duplicate keys for local graveyards to break into tombs. He also advised them to watch the gibbets for corpses. Hanging the body of an executed criminal in chains was known as gibbeting.
He successfully negotiated with judges and authorities to make long life sentences into death sentences instead and once the prisoner was executed, their body would end up on his dissection table. He would never, though, have considered himself to be like the resurrection men that we have talked about in other episodes this season. Andreas just needed the tools for his job, and that is how he saw things. This was how things went, though if he were among the Renaissance era anatomists.
Historical accounts tell a lot of narratives. Actually that sounds something like this. After the death of a local, hasn't, local scholars rushed the scene, all hoping to illegally snatch the fresh corpse. Despite the illegality of the body snatching and the dissection, crowds packed lecture theaters when public dissections
were held. In fifteen thirty eight, one year into his professorship, Andreas published the Tabulae and atomic a sex or Six Anatomical Tables, which were six sheets created by the Flemish artist Jan van Kulkar, an apprentice of Renaissance painter Titian, but based largely on Visalius's own drawings. Titiano Viccellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance and is considered to be the most important member
of the sixteenth century Venetian School. Six Anatomical Tables was Visalius's attempt to outline the long history of human dissection, starting from the third century BC. It can feel somewhat overwhelming to think about the impact on as his work had on medicine. By the end of fifteen thirty eight, he had assembled a collection of anatomical information large and detailed enough on which he could and did base illustrations on the human bodies, parts and organs, really all systems
from head to toe. He drew detailed composite illustrations of the human bodies anatomical structures, including the skeletal system, circulatory system, organ systems, muscular systems, nervous system, and reproductive system. Based upon his observations and dissections that he performed himself. Within the first year of his professorship, the Salius wrote and illustrated the first comprehensive textbook of anatomy, called the human E Corporus Fabrica Libra Septum, or the Seven Books on
the Structure of the Human Body. It is commonly known as the Fabrica. Historians estimate that he must have had at least thirteen cadavers to work with. Before fifty three, which is when the book was published, these bodies would have come from cemeteries in the city, places of execution, and sometimes from hospitals. In fifteen forty two, Vissalius traveled from Padua to Venice, and while it's not exactly clear what his journey entailed, we do know that he met
with Jon von Kalkar. It's very likely he was the artist who transferred at least some of Assalius's illustrations into woodblock prints. Wood block printing, just to kind of sum this up, because it's an interesting process, is an old form of printmaking. These prints are created by carving the surface of a wooden block. It's a form of relief printing based on the idea that the parts that aren't to be printed are the parts that get cut out, so anything that will be printed would be on level
with the surface of the block. Andrea sent the woodblocks of his drawings to printer Johannes Apornus in Basel, Switzerland, who could mass reproduce the images, and the resulting manuscript was published in fifty forty three. And as we've said, that work was a game changer in anatomy and surgery. The Fabrica included fully illustrated anatomy of male and female bodies, both full bodies and body parts. There were more than
two hundred seventy detailed illustrations included in the work. It included detailed diagrams of uteruses, some drawn with intact fetuses. This was huge. Yes, this book was huge in length, but also nothing like this existed and it was considered quite radical. Before the sixteenth century, most medical texts were mostly devoid of illustrations, the very opposite of Andreas's book, says Lila Vercurdie, head of Special Collections at the Smithsonian Libraries,
the Fabrica was quote an immense achievement. This almost seven hundred pages long, huge folio volume is one of the heralds of the scientific revolution. Of course, Andrea's isn't the first to study, teach, and publish about anatomy, but as Arnaldo Benini, emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at the University of Zurich as well as former head of neurosurgery at the Schultis Foundation in Zurich, says, the Fabrica was the first anatomical book based on first hand dissections of
human cadavers, and he's right, it absolutely was. But there's another really important guy among anatomists that we need to talk about. We're gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back we will talk a lot about Galen and how Andreas disproved many of his longstanding anatomical truths. Welcome back to Criminalia. Before we wrap up this episode, someone will call Andreas vis alias
an insolent and ig arrant slanderer. But who Claudius Galenus, known simply as Galen, was a renowned physician and philosopher in ancient Greece. Along with Hippocrates, you could safely say he's the most influential physician and most important medical scholar of classical antiquity. When Vesalius received his medical education, it would have been dominated by the works of Galen, works
that had been published thirteen hundred years earlier. Galen's writings and teachings were still de rigor more than a thousand years after his death, and they were considered authoritative texts in medical education in Vesalius's time. Here's one of the biggest differences between Galen and Vesalius. Almost all of Galen's anatomical observations came from animal dissections, primarily apes and other primates, but never from humans. Dissecting a human corpse was taboo
under Roman religion during Galen's time of study. To be honest, of course, it wasn't legal during Andreas' time either. During the sixteenth century, many people believed in the resurrection of the body after death, so interfering with the dead body by dissecting it was really really problematic, but it still happened, and that certainly did not stop Andreas from visiting the
graveyard on the regular. Galen's understanding of medicine, including anatomy, was influenced by the then popular theory that there were four humors blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Humoral theory was a system of medicine. It detailed a theorized working of the human body, and it was adopted by ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, and it was adopted for a really, really long time too. Galen authored his groundbreaking work called on the Nature of Man in
the Hippocratic Corpus, based on this theory. The most famous work thought in the Hippocratic corpus is, of course, the Hippocratic Oath, the famous oath of ethics taken by physicians still today. Galen's works on dissection were problematic for visalias. Galen worked from anatomical reports that were based at least mainly on the dissection of barbary apes. He later, upon discovering that the apes had humanlike facial expressions, switched to
other mammals, usually pigs. Galen believed personal experiences and observation were the best way to gain anatomical knowledge, but because dissection and vivisection on human bodies were strictly prohibited at the time in the Holy Roman Empire, he could only encourage his students to seek out corpses not for dissection. For example, he would suggest that they look at dead gladiators or bodies that washed ashore in order to get
better acquainted with the human body. The Salius wrote of Galen quote, Indeed, those who are now dedicated to the ancient study of medicine are beginning to learn, to their satisfaction, and how little and how feebly men have labored in the field of anatomy to this day, From the times of Galen, who did not dissect the human body, and the fact is now evident that he described, not to say imposed upon us, the fabric of the ape's body, although the latter differs from the former in many respects
on the nature of man, and Galen's anatomical work remained uncontested until Vassalius's Fabrica was printed. Andreas had no reason to question the theories of Galen. Those theories were in place, as we've said, for more than a thousand years. Though Visalius praised Galen throughout his work, he also corrected him, and that had never been done before. The act was viewed by many scholars as an attack on the accepted
Galenic doctrine. Andreas received heavy criticism from many who were respected in the medical community, including his former teacher Jacobus Sylvius, who called him quote the insolent and ignorant slanderer who treacherously attacked his teachers with violent mendacity, and time and time again distorted the truth of nature. Here's a look at some of the inaccurate ideas that his observation based works disproved. He disproved Galen's assertion that men have more
teeth than women. He disproved the two horned uterus, the five lobed liver, the seven segmented stern um, the double bile duct, and he proved there is no bone at the base of the heart. There's more, and we encourage you to look it up if you're interested. Actually, some of our historical anatomical beliefs are really quite a trip
over the years. According to Dr William Richardson, classicist at the University of Auckland, some people in the medical field condemned the Salius's Fabrica for his audacity in questioning and criticizing Galen, but there were others who did praise it. Before we move on, one thing about Richardson. Richardson is an interesting guy when it comes to the Slias. In nine nine he began the enormous project of undertaking the first English translation of the seven book collection of on
the Fabric of the Human Body. In two thousand and nine, the project he and anatomy professor John Carmen began was complete twenty years later. Two weeks after publishing The Fabrica, the Salius published again his work, The Humanic Corporus Fabrica liborum Epitome or Abridgment of the structure of the human body consisted of eleven woodblock prints that included illustrations of
the skeleton, muscles, nerves, veins, and arteries. The epitome differed from the Fabrica though in that, for instance, the muscles were drawn in their natural resting position and in layers showing the way from superficial to deep, which was a
view helpful to surgeons when operating and treating wounds. Following the release of the Epitome, when you think he may have been at the top of his game here, as Salius resigned from his professorship at Padua and subsequently and perhaps hastily burned his entire collection of notes and sketches. Some historians believe this was in reaction to the negative
reception or his perceived negative reception, of the Fabrica. Upon leaving Padua, of As Salius moved to Madrid, where he became court physician of Charles, the fifth Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. With this, Andreas became the fifth generation of the Vassalius family to be an imperial service. When Charles advocated the throne, he granted Andreas a lifelong pension and gave him the title of Count Palatine for
his loyal service. Thessalius then held the same role of physician for Charles's son, King Philip the Second of Spain. Although Visalius was increasingly called to act as a physician and surgeon, he did not abandon in his former work for the royals, and continued to edit and refine his writings and drawings. He did not teach or body snatch
in Spain, at least not that we know of. It was during his time in Spain when Andreas wrote what would be his final work, a critique of the anatomical observations of his contemporary Gabriella Fallopio Spain forbade dissection of human cadavers, and according to medical historian James Ball, it's doubtful that Vissalius could have even quote touched a dried skull. But he continued to work on his editions and corrections of the Fabrica while in Spain, of which a second
version was published in fifteen fifty five. The revised edition is considered itself a major contribution, rather than just an update of the earlier version. In fifteen sixty four, Vissalius left Spain with his family While his wife and daughter returned to Brussels, he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The reasons for this journe they have never been completely explained, but it's his return that we're concerned with right now. His ship was caught in a storm and washed ashore
on the Greek island of Zakinthos. The Salius did not recover and died at age forty nine in October fifteen sixty four. So I guess that means he wasn't dissected on a dissection table. Unlikely, so probably. But shall we give a toast to the man who is considered the founder of modern anatomy. Yes, although the name he might find insulting, but it's really just because I enjoyed the word play of it. He might have too, we don't know.
I don't think he would. Maybe he would. In thinking about this one, this is a choose your own adventure situation. Always love those, and it will surprise you, I think, because what I started to think about was the Salius's Flemish origin, and thus Belgium, and thus beer Holly goes down the beer path. I'm not a beer drinker. I don't I don't love beer. However, a few things. One thing that I have noticed recently is that more and more there's like this resurgence or maybe first wave of
popularity of beer cocktails. I don't know if you have encountered them, but I keep seeing them popping up on menus places. I've been seeing them pop up as well. Yeah, I haven't. I can't say I have any experience, but I yeah. And so I thought I may not be a beer drinker, but I thought a couple of things. One, how could I make beer more palatable to myself? And two maybe beer drinkers would like a cocktail as well. Then I got, of course, to thinking about beer cocktails.
And this is not really a new thing. They've been made in Europe for literal hundreds of years. And there's the basic beer cocktail, although what it consists of you may find disagreement on. Is called a shandy. Oh, I know, the sandy, and it's equal parts beer and something else, because there's something else people argue about. But often you'll see it going back to the older versions of even either equal parts beer and ginger ale or ginger beer.
And so I thought, let's try a little shandy experiment, which I'm gonna call Galen Sculp Galen. Oh, I see where you're going here. That's why he's like, how much of this could I take a part? But I like alliteration. It's gonna start. You're gonna do equal parts of a pale ale get a good one. And I went with ginger beer. And then here's the choose your own adventure part. I will tell you again, I know and I do not in any shade to any of the beer drinkers
in the crowd. All beer tastes the same to me, and it is not a good taste. I don't think everyone likes beer, so I think we can be on you know, I think we can be on your side. No, but I know there are people that like, really love beer, and they can pick out all of the flavors and the notes of a beer the way that someone would do with wine, or that I feel like I can do with vodka. But you have but you do have an alcohol that is like that for you. People will
do that also with coffees and whatnot. Like everybody, I do not have a palette that can pluck those notes out food, so it all cases the same to me. So I don't love a basic shandy that is a one in one. But then there are experiments, and this is where becomes to choose your own adventure. In thinking about what we talked about last week, where I was like, oh, you know, what might be fun is to throw a
little mango in there. I brought that over this week and I used three ounces of pale ale, three ounces of ginger beer, and about three quarters of an ounce like flashed it in of mango syrup. And that got real interesting and it's quite nice. I also did one with a rose syrup. Of course, because I'm predictable, I did one with grenadine, which is very yummy. Actually, I was gonna say, actually I was imagining that before I
asked the question of how how was that? It pulled out all of the fruity flavors of the beer, which is quite nice. And then I also did one with a habanniro syrup. I just made a little like half sized versions of them. I wasn't drinking for drinks, although since it's diluted, it's not a heavy a BV situation. But I also just couldn't drink that much beer even if I wanted to. That's the choose your own adventure aspect is that I think you can play with whatever
syrup or even a liqueur. Now I'm going to say I haven't played with liqueurs, so I don't know what would work and what wouldn't. I am confident and elderberry liqueur would be great whenever I which is infrequently, but whenever I bring up one of them, I'm always like, but I've got this elder flower and always want to use it in things, and this is where I try. Yeah, elder flower liquor in this would be great. So for a nonalcoholic version, you can obviously do a non alcoholic
beer if you wish. However, if you want to just sidestep that completely, you could also do I would do like a lemonade and a ginger beer. It's not going to be the same profile, but there are two things that go nicely together and welcome other flavors to the party. So just like a three ounce three ounce and then three quarters of an ounce of your additive, so you can feel a little bit like a scientist and an experiment here, but also you can cater it to your
own tastes. You can be like, oh, you were doing just the beer and the ginger ginger beer, that's very rudimentary. I like the Salius have done much more detailed investigation and creation. And you've been tree the grave, you are, Yeah, that is Galen's gulp. I actually really love the lemonade and ginger beer version, because that's another one that's great. Again, I always say loshaw her, but I really prefer lower sugar stuff, especially in our current heat wave that's happening
in Georgia. Sugar and it's very quite refreshing. So I have a picture of those now sitting in my fridge. The non alcoholic version delicious. So yes, if you try this shandy, If you, like me, are just trying to experiment and do new things, here is a way to play with beer in your cocktails. And then, if you're me, who knows you're never going to drink the amount of beer you had to purchase to get the one that you wanted. You invite your friends over and you give
them your leftover beer and they love you. So easy, so easy. I literally texted one of my best friends and she's like, Oh, I'm so excited you picked a thing you don't like. I'll take care of that. For yet, yes, or I'll have people over and we'll have shandies on the deck and it'll be fun. I hope that you are having fun whatever it is you're up to, and I hope that you have had fun with us today. We are very grateful for your years and your time, and we will be right back here next week with
another episode of Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.