Imagining Vesalius: An Ekphrastic, Scholarly, and Literary Celebration of the 1543 De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius

Imagining Vesalius is a collection of ekphrastic works - poetry, prose, watercolors and sculpture - celebrating De Humani Corporis Fabrica, the 1543 landmark anatomical atlas by Andreas Vesalius. Using the stunning woodcuts in this famous book as inspiration - woodcuts elaborated by artists from Titian's studio in nearby Venice - well known writers and artists have composed 53 poems, prose poems and art works on subjects ranging from a parent's autopsy to immortality through dissection, murder, organ donation to amputation to the role of women in dissection to the anatomy of gaze. In addition there are four introductory essays by authorities in their fields on ekphrasis, Vesalius's place in the history of medicine, Vesalius as seen by a modern day poet, and a contemplative reflection on Vesalius's contributions to the development of dissection. Additionally there is a section of translation including seven poems to or about Vesalius by famous contemporaries or near contemporaries, including Philip Melanchthon and Jakob Balde. Six are from Neo-Latin; one is from Italian. Four represent the first time these poems appear in English and all benefit from original scholarship. After an extensive bibliography with online resources, the book ends with brief biographies of the authors. A rich anthology of Vesaliana, Imagining Vesalius will prove of interest to readers and scholars alike, with its offerings in ekphrasis, literature and medicine, the history of medicine and late medieval studies in art, anatomy and medicine.