The price it just fetched, at auction, is largely incidental — as I am put in mind of the fine documentary “The Price Of Everything…” [we mentioned it here before].

No, I’d say… what matters, is that he was nearly put to death, for having challenged the ancient Greeks texts — on matters of anatomical science, of the day. In the early 1500s, doctors were still taught anatomy from BCE Greek and Roman texts.

He largely introduced, and codified, the notion of skeptical examination, in the physical anatomy of any body. And he went on to hide his hand-written latin margin notes — for a forthcoming third edition (while being persecuted for his science), an edition that was never set to print — in his own personal copy of the second edition of his masterpiece.

Here’s the entralling story of the re-discovery, in full — and a bit:

…In 2007, a retired Canadian doctor paid €13,200 (US$14,256) for a well-used second edition of Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica (1555) — one of the most influential books in history. Only 150 copies are known. The book had been in the hands of collectors for more than four centuries and had extensive latin annotations by an unknown hand.

Book collectors tend to shun books with annotations as they are often seen as desecrations of the finished work, particularly so with important works, but even more so when a book is as large, beautiful and of such immense historical gravitas as De humani corporis fabrica….

When Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) first published his radical De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body), the ancient texts of Aristotle and Galen were still judged authoritative in the medical schools of Europe. By performing his own dissections, Vesalius discovered errors in the ancient authors’ teachings. The De humani corporis fabrica, which drew attention to these flaws, initially threatened the academic medical establishment but ultimately won Vesalius admiration and a post as court physician to Charles V, to whom he dedicated the volume….

This is indeed, a wonderful time to be alive — as now, most of the persecution of scientists, for scientific ideas, seems to be only in small, local pockets — chiefly relegated to the Bible Belt in the US. [The above volume is now going to be displayed (shared with the world!) in the main library of Vesalius’ alma mater, KU Leuven, the oldest university in the Low Countries, nearly six centuries later.] Onward.

नमस्ते