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I 



VESALIUS AND DON CARLOS 

 A Historical Footnote 



N YEARS that bring the philosophic mind," no year is quite so golden as that 



which saw the great conjunction of scientific utterance on the Macrocosm 

 and on the little world of man. As though the mere conjuncture were not 

 enough to signalize for all time in the history of science the year 1543, the year 

 itself is measured against its contemporary and universal beliefs, when the 

 vasty circuits of the Macrocosm faced inwards to the Microcosm, fashioned in 

 His own image, the concentrated epitome of the Universe. Such is the year 

 which saw the press unfold the De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium of 

 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and the De Humani Corporis Fabrica of 

 Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). 



As the heady Falernian wine, "solo vinorum flamma accenditur," is quenched, 

 says Horace,^ by the lighter Sorrentine, so with the passing of the year the 

 swelling ferment of the Renaissance settled somewhat, for Copernicus was 

 dead and Vesalius had passed into obscurity, lost to science, swallowed by the 

 court of the Emperor Charles V. What induced Vesalius to relinquish his 

 professorship at Padua we do not know. In view of his downright and forceful 

 character it seems unlikely that he sought, as suggested by some," protection 

 at the com t of this powerful monarch from the persecution of his enemies- 

 enemies for whom he had little but contempt. Indeed, Vesalius was bold 

 enough to indulge at times in the dangerous pastime of baiting the clergy and 

 sufficiently unafraid to turn on occasion to the still more hazardous occupation 

 of rational Biblical exegesis. In fact, the protection of the Duke Cosimo de' 

 Medici and those "very learned Italians who are so friendly towards me"^ 

 would perhaps by its very liberality have proved more adequate than did that 

 of bigoted and heresy-hunting Spain. Nevertheless his actions in destroying 

 his manuscripts and his works demonstrate that he was deeply upset over the 

 calumnies of his enemies and particularly by the vicious attacks of his old 

 friend and teacher Sylvius. "I am at present," he says, "in such a state of mind 

 that no matter how great my desire or how great the urge of self-love, I can 

 bring myself neither to attempt any new work, nor to contemplate any pub- 

 lication."* 



A sensitive and volatile man, fully aware of the significance of his own work, 

 it is not surprising that he should divorce himself from academic pursuits and 

 the clangor of the Italian schools and seek seclusion, far removed, at a court 

 \vhere he had such excellent ancestral connections. Vesalius was genuinely 

 interested in the practice of medicine, and perhaps the opportunity of apply- 

 ing his new-won knowledge and method to fresh and wider fields of endeavor 

 was sufficient incentive to the change. 



Our picture of Vesalius' character and outlook would be very incomplete 



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