In fact, it still exists today, making it the oldest known anatomical preparation of a body. No one had dissected a body in Basel for a dozen years before that, and the university decided to preserve the specimen. Vesalius sweet-talked the authorities into letting him take possession of Karrer, and he held a public dissection for the masses. A local bigamist named Jakob Karrer had decided to end his legal troubles by murdering his first wife, and got caught and hanged. He was jailed for this stunt, and it took Martin Luther, of all people, to get him sprung.īy the by, while waiting for his book to print in Basel, Vesalius got restless, and decided to dissect a body that more or less fell into his lap there. In addition to producing Fabrica, Vesalius’s printer was notorious for printing the first Koran translated into Latin. Leonardo also dissected the bodies haphazardly and superficially, nothing like the systematic work of Vesalius. But he did so in secret, and his work did not influence anatomical science, since no one knew of it. It’s true that Leonardo had dissected a number of bodies by the later 1400s. Some scholars have argued that Leonardo da Vinci dissected bodies long before Vesalius did and therefore deserves credit as the true pioneer in anatomy. This obvious sham of a lecture stirred up scandal among the officials granting the degree, and Paré barely mustered enough support. He finally convinced a learned friend and ally to write out his speech for him months ahead of time, and he memorized it. Paré didn’t speak Latin, so when he decided to pursue the degree, he faced a dilemma.

Getting a master surgeon degree in Ambroise Paré’s time required the candidate to deliver an address in Latin. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve

The dueling neurosurgeons