Which statement about Andreas Vesalius's The Structure of the Human Anatomy is correct?
Which statement about Andreas Vesalius’s The Structure of the Human Anatomy is correct?
a. It was essentially a better-illustrated version of Hippocrates’s ancient Greek texts.
b. It borrowed heavily from the works of Hippocrates and Galen, and as a result, was spectacularly inaccurate.
c. It was banned by Church officials who considered Vesalius’s use of dissection immoral.
d. It showed how Hippocrates and Galen were entirely wrong about many aspects of human anatomy.
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Choice C is the correct answer. Vesalius’ works on anatomy did not contradict Hippocrates so much as Galen, who was prior to Vesalius considered the authority on human anatomy. Vesalius used Galen’s works as a basis for his works but overturned many of Galen’s findings about our anatomy. The Ihquisition did condemn him to death for dissecting a human body but his sentence was reduced largely due to his position as physician to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The second part of choice D concerning Galen being wrong about essential aspects of human anatomy has some truth to it as well, but choice C is the most clearly accurate of all the options.