Myology before Vesalius

Giambattista Canani (1515-1579 n.s.) from Ferrara was a remarkable and leading physician-anatomist in the sixteenth century, but he is far less well known today than his contemporaries such as Vesalius, Fallopio or Colombo. His only work on the muscular anatomy of the upper limb Musculorum humani corporis picturata dissectio can in fact be considered as a masterpiece of its time, no less innovative than Vesalius’ Fabrica. The Picturata dissectio is revolutionary in its content and contains copper etchings of exceptional quality and precision. This is the result of Canani’s extensive dissections of human corpses, performed meticulously and with a determination to discover the tiniest details of the human anatomy.

Only a few original copies of this very rare work are now in existence, and it can only be seen in a small number of the most prestigious libraries: in Europe mostly in Italy (Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Pavia, Milan) but also in Dresden, Glasgow, Krakow, London, Oxford, Uppsala and Vienna. The only two original copies in the United States are in the Yale University Library and the Rubenstein Library of Duke University, the latter here published in facsimile.

The study of this beautiful and historically signifcant work is strongly recommended.

Francis van Glabbeek is Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Antwerp. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and Assistant Head of the Orthopaedics and Trauma Department of Antwerp University Hospital, specialising in the upper limb. Within the faculty of medicine, he is responsible for musculoskeletal anatomy and the history of medicine.

Maurits Biesbrouck published a Dutch translation of the frst volume of the 1543 Fabrica by Vesalius, as well as a Vesalius bibliography and a summary and discussion of the editions of his works, both of which are updated every year at www.andreasvesalius.be.

Jacqueline Vons Professor Emeritus of classical languages at Université François Rabelais in Tours and a member of the Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Touraine. Together with Prof. Stephane Velut, Professor of anatomy at the same university, she published the frst French translation of Vesalius’s Epitome and is currently working for the Interuniversity Library of Medicine (BIUM) in Paris on the French translation of Vesalius’s 1543 Fabrica .