Vesalius Continuumm

I was very excited and happy to attend the Vesalius Continuum this September 2014 in Greece. I spent a lovely week on the island Zakynthos and of course not only enjoyed the congress with lots of fascinating topics and interesting speakers and attendees and but also the warm weather, delicious greek food and of course relaxing on the beach.

The topic of this years conference was commemorating the 500th anniversary of Andréas Vesalius, the great Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius, universally referred to as the father of human modern Anatomy, died in Zakynthos, Greece in 1564.

The conference program inculded:

• Scientific research presentations from distinguished Vesalius scholars from around the world (UK, USA, France, Italy, Greece and Belgium).

• A contemporary art exhibition “Fabrica Vitae” of renowned Medical Artists. http://www.fabrica-vitae.com

• Musical concerts – in the frame of the cultural project “Things From Belgium”.

• Film presentations – Fabrica Vitae film, Jan Fabre & Giacomo Rizzolatti, MEDinART

A new commemorative monument created by Richard Neave and Pascale Pollier

If you are interested to learn more about Andreas Vesalius I would recommend you to have a look at one of the issues of the Karger Gazette. It’s a free newspaper/e-paper that appears once a year and highlights a specially selected theme of current interest in biomedical research and clinical practice. The articles in this issue introduce you to Vesalius as a pioneer of modern anatomy and also go beyond to look at the role of art and illustration in a medical and historical context. There’s a specially interesting interview with Pascale Pollier, President BIOMAB, AEIMS, Artem-Medicalis, about her work as a medical illustrator. You can download it here:

I also invite you to visit the website www.vesalius-fabrica.com where you will find some more interesting stories about Vesalius, his times and his work as well as background information on the production of the New Fabrica.