Studies in Pre-Vesalian Anatomy: Biography, Translations, Documents by L. R. Lind (review)

Abstract

Among his contemporaries in anatomy were Bartholin, Bellini, Brunner, Cowper, de Graaf, Gall, Glisson, Highmore, Meibom, Nuck, Peyer, Riolan, Rivinus, Steno, Sylvius, TuIp, Wharton, Willis, Wirsung, and others whose names are still associated with parts of the human body. But Malpighi was greater than any of these. Adelmann's monumental work is the companion piece of his highly acclaimed Marcello Malpighi and the Evolution of Embryology (1966), also in five volumes. Historians of science have increasingly recognized the importance of the epistolary activities of scientists, especially when they are extensive and include both sides of a correspondence, in developing a deeper appreciation of the writers and their period. Malpighi's extant letters involve about 150 correspondents, many of whom were men of great distinction in their own right. The preface states that "a large mass of [his] documents important for the interpretation of the scientific milieu of the seventeenth century has been accessible in the original only to a few, and only with great difficulty, and even that part which has been published cannot be used to best advantage by students ofthe history of science." Now for the first time, all the 1,079 letters comprising the correspondence of this distinguished scientist have been collected into a single series of five volumes spread over the years 1658-1694. Each letter is in the original Latin, with minor emendations, and numbered serially. The editor's annotations are extensive and designed to increase the appreciation of a letter's significance. For those not acquainted with the original languages, there are brief English summaries, pithy yet instructive. There is indication of the repository of each letter, and, if previously published, the source and date is noted. Volume 5 contains an extensive list of titles cited, 166 pages in all, and the detailed index reads like a telephone directory of science, from Aesculapius to Zwinger. These volumes constitute a remarkable resource for scholars and, to sum it up in one word, "superb" can only reflect modest appraisal. Ronald Singer Department of Anatomy University of Chicago Studies in Pre-Vesalian Anatomy: Biography, Translations, Documents. By L. R. Lind. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1975. Pp. 34. $18.00. The 50 years prior to the publication of Andreas Vesalius' De Humant Corporis Fabrica (1543) was a momentous period of intellectual development when the scientific spirit was awakening and struggling for better expression. Amazing achievements were witnessed "not only in science but in art, literature, philosophy, exploration, political organization, imperialism, nationalism, and religion. The invention of printing less than fifty years before this period had enormously advanced the possibilities of thought and culture by way of printed books, including editions and translations of the Greek and Latin classics from which Italian Humanism drew the inspiration for its stimulating dialogue with antiquity" (from the introduction). Previous surveys of the 150 years before Vesalius, especially of the printed 296 I Book Reviews sketches of anatomy and some translations of texts, have drawn attention to the relatively slow progress, particularly in the fifteenth century. The reasons do not really lie in the difficulty of getting material for dissection or the opposition of the church. The real tether on anatomical science was the mental habit of the time. The burning desire for the analysis of nature at firsthand was not a dominating insistence. The effects of tradition and of education had to be overcome , and the gradual assimilation of new methods and new ideas was necessarily slow. As Locy stated [1], the retarding influence was generic rather than specific. Independent spirits of great originality were rare then, as now, and it seems natural that the habit of imitation should have so long perpetuated anatomical sketches of poor quality. Plagiarism was rife: publishers and authors engaged in it in a wholesale way. The ethics of the rights of intellectual property went unrecognized. The traditional anatomy, chiefly of Galen and his commentators , appeared in numerous guises under different authorship. With the establishment of a new method based on observation and reason, Vesalius (and da Vinci in the illustrative area) stood out as a beacon in the previous darkness and ushered in the era of independent observations. Professor Lind, Department of Classics, University of Kansas...