Juan Valverde de Amusco (or "de Hamusco") (c. 1525-?) was born in the

Crown of Castille The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...

in what is now Spain 1525 and studied medicine in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and Rome under

Realdo Columbo Matteo Realdo Colombo (c. 1515 – 1559) was an Italian professor of anatomy and a surgeon at the University of Padua between 1544 and 1559. Early life and education Matteo Realdo Colombo or Realdus Columbus, was born in Cremona, Lombardy, the ...

and

Bartolomeo Eustachi Bartolomeo Eustachi (c. 1500–1510 – 27 August 1574), also known by his Latin name of Bartholomaeus Eustachius (), was an Italian anatomist and one of the founders of the science of human anatomy. Biography Bartolomeo Eustachio (known as Eu ...

. He published several works on anatomy, including ''De animi et corporis sanitate tuenda libellus'' (Paris, 1552). Valverde's most famous work was ''Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano'', first published in Rome, 1556. All but four of its 42 engraved copperplate illustrations were taken almost directly from

Andreas Vesalius Andreas Vesalius (Latinized from Andries van Wezel) () was a 16th-century anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, ''De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' '' ...

's ''De humani corporis fabrica''. Vesalius bitterly commented on Valverde's plagiarism, accusing him of having performed very few dissections himself. Occasionally, however, Valverde corrected Vesalius' images, as in his depictions of the muscles of the eyes, nose, and larynx. One of Valverde's most striking original plates is that of a muscle figure holding his own skin in one hand and a knife in the other, which has been likened to

Saint Bartholomew Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو� ...

The Last Judgment (Michelangelo) ''The Last Judgment'' ( it, Il Giudizio Universale) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final a ...

of the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

. The original illustrations were most likely drawn by

Gaspar Becerra Gaspar Becerra (1520–1568) was a Spanish painter and sculptor of the School of Valladolid. Biography He was born at Baeza in the Province of Jaén. He went to Rome in 1545, and studied with Giorgio Vasari, whom he assisted in painting the h ...

(1520–1570), a contemporary of Michelangelo, and the copperplate engravings are thought to have been carried out by Nicolas Beatrizet (1507?-1570?), whose initials "NB" appear on several of the plates.

Sources

* Adapted from public domain text at Juan Valverde de Amusco Biography. Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.

References

*Choulant, L. ''History and bibliography of anatomic illustration''. Trans. and annotated by Mortimer Frank. (New York: Hafner, 1962), pp. 205–208. *Cushing, Harvey. ''A Bio-Bibliography of Andreas Vesalius''. (New York: Schuman's, 1943), pp. 146–148.

External links

Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.
Selected pages scanned from the original work.

Northwestern University

*[http://www.bronwenwilson.ca/body.catalogue#susan Wolfe, Susan. "Peeling off the skin: revealing alternate meanings of Valverde's muscle man." On the website, "The Boundaries of the Body and Scientific Illustration in Early Modern Europe."]
Images from ''Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano''
From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library
Images from the Edition Antwerp, Plantin, 1568
Royal Dutch Society for Medicine (KNMG), Amsterdam Special Collections. {{DEFAULTSORT:Valverde de Amusco, Juan 1525 births 1587 deaths People from the Province of Palencia Spanish anatomists Spanish biologists Italian engravers Spanish scientists 16th-century Spanish physicians