Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1694

ADOLPHE PIERRE BURGGRAEVE (1806-1902) Études sur André Vésale. C. Annoot-Braeckman 1841 [8] xxxiii [1] 439 pp., front. (port.), fold. autograph facsimile. 24.7 cm.

Burggraeve, a native of Ghent, initially studied law but later changed to medicine. He graduated at Ghent in 1828, and was appointed prosector of anatomy and also presented lectures on pathological anatomy. He eventually became professor of anatomy and chief surgeon at the Ghent Hospital. Burggraeve wrote his major work, Répertoire universel de médecine dosimétrique, in 1876 and traveled widely in Europe to popularize the theory detailed in the book of chemotherapy based on alkaloids. Burggraeve was also a medical historian and, in addition to the present work, wrote books on the history of anatomy and Hippocrates. This book was the only major critical and biographical study of Vesalius (see No. 280 ff.) until Moritz Roth's Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis (Berlin, 1892). In addition to a brief general survey of the development of anatomy and the basic details of Vesalius' life, the remainder of the book is an analysis of the Fabrica (see No. 281) and Chirurgia magna. The latter work has been shown to be a spurious work authored by Prospero Borgarucci (fl. 1560) and published in 1568, but was accepted as legitimate by Burggraeve. The facsimile containing Vesalius' signature is that of a dispensation given by Vesalius to the French ambassador to Spain--the Bishop of Limoges--to eat during Lent because of his ill health. It is the first record known to document Vesalius' activities in Spain.

See Related Record(s): 280 281

Cited references: Cushing B859; Osler 591; Waller 17924; Wellcome II, p. 273

Copy 2: Gift of John Martin, M.D