When Vesalius started his life journey five hundred years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci's own journey into the human body was symbolically coming to an end. Denounced by a German collaborator for necromancy, he would eventually be barred by the Church from even entering the Ospedale di Santo Spirito under accusations of "heresy and cynical dissection of cadavers". He will never dissect again.

Still, Leonardo's work might have actually been known to Vesalius himself, considering that Da Vinci's heir, Francesco Melzi, kept all of his master's notebooks not too far from Padua, and was eager to show them to anyone interested. They might have actually served as inspiration for Vesalius' scenic styles of the Fabrica. This talk will review Leonardo's amazing contributions to the field of anatomy, which are eons ahead of anything available at the time, but that unfortunately remained locked in Windsor's castle for almost 300 years.

For more information and to purchase tickets please visit http://muttermuseum.org/events/leonardo-and-the-reinvention-of-anatomy/

Source: http://ciaophiladelphia.com