On the Fabric of the Human Body

PREFACE OF ANDREAS VESALIUS

Because I have not yet passed my twenty-eighth year, this occasion will carry little authority. Furthermore, because of my frequent indications of Galen’s untrue dogmas, it will not be safe from the habits of those who—just like us in the Italian schools—have not diligently applied themselves to Anatomy. These men, now old and wasting away with envy over the correct discoveries of younger men, will be ashamed to have been blind until now, along with the rest who followed Galen. Despite claiming a great name for themselves in the art of medicine, they will be ashamed not to have noticed the things we now propose. This work would hardly dare to come forth into the light under favorable omens unless it were commended, according to custom, by the great patronage of some divine power.

Truly, because it can be protected by no name more safely, nor adorned more splendidly, than by the never-dying name of the Divine Charles, the most invincible and greatest Emperor, I beseech your Majesty to allow this youthful study of mine—indebted to you for many reasons and causes—to pass into the hands of men for a time under your leadership, brilliance, and patronage. This shall continue until, through the use of things and the judgment and learning that grows with age, I may render this labor worthy of the highest and best Prince, or offer another gift of a different argument drawn from our art that is not to be rejected.

Yet I predict that, out of the entire discipline of Apollo original: "Apollinea disciplina"; referring to the god of healing and medicine, and indeed out of all natural philosophy, nothing could be produced that is more pleasing or acceptable to your Majesty than this history. Through it, we come to know the body and the soul, and furthermore a certain divine power from the harmony of both—and finally, we come to know ourselves (which is truly the task of a human being). As I gather this from many arguments, so I especially suspect it because, among that multitude of books dedicated to your grandfather, Maximilian Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459–1519), of happy memory, no book was ever more pleasing than one concerning the present business.

Nor shall I ever forget with what pleasure you inspected my anatomical tables, and how curiously you inquired about every detail, which my father Andreas—your Majesty’s primary and most faithful pharmacist—presented for your viewing at one time. I shall pass over for now that incredible love of yours for all disciplines, and especially for the mathematical sciences, particularly that which treats the knowledge of the world and the stars referring to astronomy and astrology, and your admirable skill in it for such a great hero. Thus, it could hardly be otherwise than that, just as you uniquely hold a knowledge of the world, you might also one day be delighted by the weighing of the most absolute construction of all creatures, and take pleasure in considering the lodging and instrument of the immortal soul. Because this corresponds excellently to the world in so many ways, it was called a "small world" original: "paruus mundus"; the concept of the human body as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm of the universe by the ancients not without reason.

However, I have decided not to preach here about the knowledge of the structure of one’s own body—which is most worthy for a man, highly commendable in itself, and in which it has pleased the greatest men of Rome, foremost in both affairs and philosophical disciplines, to bestow such great effort. Likewise, being rightly mindful of Alexander the Great—who wished to be painted only by Apelles, cast in bronze by Lysippus, and sculpted by Pyrgoteles—I have thought even less of recounting any of your praises here. I fear that with a meager and poorly practiced speech, I might pour darkness over them instead of light. This is especially true since one must utterly disapprove of that too-common custom in Prefaces, where without any selection and almost beyond merit, as if from some template or formula and for the sake of some cheap little reward, there is usually ascribed to everyone: respected learning, singular prudence, wondrous gentleness, sharp judgment, untiring liberality, a wondrous love toward the literate and their studies, mature speed in conducting affairs, and indeed a whole choir of virtues. No one is unaware (even if I do not speak of it here) that your Majesty surpasses all mortals in these, no less than in dignity, success, and the triumphs of your deeds. Whence, even while still living, you are worshipped in the place of a supreme deity. I pray that the gods do not envy the world and these studies, but that they keep and protect you safe and perpetually happy for mortals for a very long time.

Padua, the Calends of August August 1st, in the year after the birth of Christ, 1542.