De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body)

For 1,000 years, European views of the body were based on the work of Galen and Hippocrates. This view of the body centered around four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) that reached equilibrium in every person. Patients were healed by apothecaries or barber-surgeons, and the most common healing technique was bloodletting. Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica is based on Vesalius’ extensive experience dissecting corpses and studying the medical advances of the Renaissance. The book corrects many of Galen’s errors and was distributed and illustrated thanks in large part to the printing press. Vesalius continued to maintain some of Galen’s errors, but his work exemplifies the medical advances made during the Early Modern period and is the beginning of an age during which the human body became much less of a mystery to the scientific community.

Vesalius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vesalius_Fabrica_fronticepiece.jpg

1543