The public is invited to view several works by and about famous anatomist, Andreas Vesalius, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center McGoogan Library of Medicine. The works will be on display now thru June 2016.
Born about 500 years ago in Brussels, Belgium, Vesalius was descended from a family of prominent physicians in Wesel (now Germany). He studied medicine in Paris, later moving to Belgium to teach anatomy. After serving as an army surgeon in France, he moved to Italy in 1537, where he became a professor of anatomy.
Vesalius was working on various versions of anatomical drawings in the late 1530s for eventual inclusion in his book, first published in 1543, with a second edition in 1555, "De corporis humani fabrica." The library owns an original volume from 1555, as well as a recently published two-volume facsimile and complete English translation of both the first and second editions. Along with these and other volumes, the library also owns a wood-block print of an illustration showing the complete series of cranial nerves, which was copied from Vesalius' original work in 1539. It is one of only a few known to be in existence.
The block print was acquired with the assistance of Edward Holyoke, M.D., Ph.D. (1908-2001), chairman of the UNMC Anatomy Department from 1960 to 1973. A native Nebraskan, Dr. Holyoke taught generations of medical students at UNMC. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in anatomy from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his doctor in medicine from UNMC.
In 1543, Vesalius’s famous work "De corporis humani fabrica libri septem (seven books on the fabric of the human body)" was published. The same year, he was appointed court physician to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He later set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but while in Cyprus, he was called back to Italy to take a chair in anatomy. On his return to Europe, the ship in which he was traveling wrecked on a Greek island, and he died there in October 1564.
The library is located on the UNMC campus on the 6th floor of Wittson Hall. Free parking is available in the Nebraska Medicine patient/visitor surface parking lot and the parking structure of on the northwest and northeast corners of 42nd St. and Dewey Ave.
The McGoogan Library of Medicine is one of the nation's major health science libraries serving the information needs of Nebraska residents, UNMC students, faculty, and staff, as well as licensed Nebraska health professionals. It encompasses 57,820 square feet of space providing 366 study seats and 16 group study rooms.
For library hours and a map, see www.unmc.edu/library/about/hrslocmaps.html
Call 402-559-4006 for more information.
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