Anatomy

This website presents Andreas Vesalius' Renaissance anatomical atlas "On the Fabric of the Human Body" (1543, 1555) in an exciting new way and explains the work in progress at Northwestern University to translate and annotate this historic work. Never before completely translated in to English, Vesalius's detailed account of human anatomy transforemd its subject and forever changed medical education in the West. Its woodcut illustrations became the basis of medical art and illustrations for generations to come, and continue to influence the way we look at the human body.

The interior of our bodies is hidden to us. What happens beneath the skin is mysterious, fearful, amazing. In antiquity, the body's internal structure was the subject of speculation, fantasy, and some study, but there were few efforts to represent it in pictures. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century-and the cascade of print technologies that followed-helped to inspire a new spectacular science of anatomy, and new spectacular visions of the body. Anatomical imagery proliferated, detailed and informative but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque -- a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self.

A late 13th century illustration of the venous system within the body.

Covers a wide range of topics, including the physical sciences, technology, and experimental archaeology in the SCA.