Vesalius and Da Vinci were born 62 years apart, Da Vinci in 1452 and Vesalius in 1514. The real main difference for their social and cultural differences with their anatomy research and sketches is to mainly be due with the time they were born in. Although 62 years apart it was less accepted for Da Vinci to cut open human bodies and sketch them as it was disrespectful due to religious reasons. He also had limited access to human resources. Leonardo was able to cut open an old man once he had died and drew sketches of him and made many notes. He was only able to do this as long as it was done in a respectful way, and the bits were buried together afterwards, then the church had no problem with it at all. He collaborated with the Veronese anatomist Marcantonio Della Torre in the medical school of the university of Pavia.
Leo was focused mostly on the structure and functioning of the valves of the heart. He made a glass model of the aortic valve. He pumped grass seeds that were suspended in water, and discovered the sinus of Valsalva, which is little circular vortices. It is a swelling at the root of the aorta. These vortices close the aortic valve when blood is flowing. He posited it in 1513. This discovery wasn’t observed again until the 20th century.
Because of the lack of resources Leonardo had to move onto other projects.
Vesalius was influenced by Da Vinci's work and had better success at resources. in 1529 a Paduan judge became interested in Vesalius' work, and helped his supply of dissection material more available and made bodies of executed criminals available to him. This information is the most important to why Vesalius was way more successful at his research of anatomy as he had more accessible access to bodies and permission whereas Leonardo only dissected 30 corpses.
This approach marked a shift in medical education , as Vesalius' work was more influential than Da Vinci's. A lot of Vesalius' work is still used today.
The drawing to the right highlights the value of women in terms of reproduction. Only the reproductive organs have been drawn to show importance, but not much else. His studies often lacked female attention. But the detail and effort put into this sketch is incredible and lifelike.
Like Leonardo, Vesalius performed dissections himself and produced anatomical charts of the blood and nervous system which has been widely copied.
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