"Vesalius & the Invention of the Modern Body" Symposium, St. Louis, Missouri; February 26 - February 28, 2015

For those in the St. Louis area: February of next year, St. Louis University and Washington University will be co-presenting an interdisciplinary symposium to celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the birth of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), founder of the study of modern human anatomy.

The symposium--which runs from February 26 - February 28, 2015--is open to the public, and will feature some of our favorite international anatomical scholars including Michael Sappol of the National Library of Medicine; Andrea Carlino of the University of Geneva
; Jonathan Sawday of Saint Louis University; and Rebecca Messbarger, author of The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini. Morbid Anatomy founder Joanna Ebenstein will also be speaking.

Schedule follows. To find out more--and get tickets--click here. Hope to see you there!

This interdisciplinary symposium will celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the birth of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), founder of the study of modern human anatomy. Saint Louis University and Washington University plan to jointly host three days of events especially inspired by the landmark publication of Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543 and 1555) and the new critical edition and translation of this work, the New Fabrica. The conference program will feature a roster of internationally-renowned speakers, including keynote speakers Daniel Garrison, Malcolm Hast, and Sachiko Kusukawa. In addition to the presentation of academic papers of leading research, the schedule will also include an anatomy demonstration, rare books workshops, and a publishers’ exhibit hall.

Because the Fabrica represented a collaborative project involving a scientist (Vesalius), a humanist (Johannes Oporinus, the printer), and an artist (Jan van Kalkar), the goal of the conference is to encourage a network of scholars working in disparate fields to explore the potential for future interdisciplinary research. 

February 26
Saint Louis University — Medical Center Library

6:00 - 7:00pm OPENING SESSION
Welcome Remarks by [TBD] Location TBD
An Updated Census of the 1st Edition (1543) and 2nd Edition (1555) of Vesalius’ de Humani Corporis Fabrica in the USA

Stephen N. Joffe MD FACS FRCS (Edin, Glas) FCS (SA)

7:00 - 9:00pm RECEPTION* and TOURS
Saint Louis University Medical School (more info to follow)

*The Welcome Reception is sponsored by the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Stephen N. Joffe

February 27
Saint Louis University — Frost Campus

8:00 - 9:00am REGISTRATION/BREAKFAST 
DuBourg Hall - Pere Marquette Gallery 
Publishers’ Exhibit Hall open

8:00am-5:30pm DuBourg - Grand Hall

8:45am CONFERENCE WELCOME
Opening Remarks: Philip Gavitt (Saint Louis University)

9:00am 

SESSION 1 - Public Dissections as Spectacle in Early Modern Europe DuBourg Hall-Pere Marquette Gallery
Session Chair: Anne Stiles (Saint Louis University)

• Andrea Carlino (University of Geneva)

• Cynthia Klestinec (University of Miami Ohio)

10:30am COFFEE BREAK

11:00am SESSION 2 - Discovery and Deconstruction of the Body: Cultural Contexts of the Fabrica 
DuBourg Hall – Pere Marquette Gallery

Session Chair: Sara van den Berg (Saint Louis University)

• Jonathan Sawday (Saint Louis University)
• Glenn Harcourt (Independent Scholar)

12:30am LUNCH BREAKLunch at Saint Louis University – Refectory, DuBourg Hall
; Shuttle service from DuBourg Hall to Young Hall

2:00pm SESSION 3 - Mapping the Interior: 3D Anatomy Demonstration Young Hall Auditorium


3:30pm COFFEE BREAK 
Shuttle service from Young Hall to DuBourg Hall

4:00pm KEYNOTE ADDRESS - Creating the New Fabrica
DuBourg Hall – Pere Marquette Gallery

Introduction by: Jonathan Sawday (Saint Louis University)

Keynote Speakers: Daniel Garrison and Malcolm Hast (Northwestern University)

6:00 - 7:30pm RECEPTION*
Pius XII Memorial Library – 2nd floor/TBD

*The Keynote Reception is sponsored by the generosity of Pius XII Memorial Library

February 28
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

8:00am REGISTRATION/BREAKFAST
EPNEC Center

8:45am OPENING REMARKSby Thomas Woolsey

9:00am SESSION 4 - Anatomical Specimens in the Early Modern Period
EPNEC Center

Session Chair: Amy Eisen Cislo, Washington University in St. Louis

• Rebecca Messbarger (Washington University in St. Louis)

  Re-casting the Vesalian Dissection Scene: Wax Anatomical Figures of the Italian Enlightenment
• Joanna Ebenstein (Morbid Anatomy Museum) From the Anatomical Theatre to the Anatomical Venus: The Intersection of Entertainment and Edification in Public Anatomies


10:30am COFFEE BREAK11:00am SESSION 5 - From the Renaissance to the Present: 19th and 21st Century Anatomical Imager
EPNEC Center

Session Chair: Elisabeth Brander, Bernard Becker Medical Library

• 
Michael Sappol (National Library of Medicine)
  The apotheosis of the dissected plate: Spectacles of layering and transparency in 19th- and 20th-century anatomy
• 
R. Gilbert Jost (Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine)
  Visualizing the Human Body Using Modern Imaging Techniques

12:30am LUNCH BREAK

2:00pm SESSION 6 - Small SessionsBecker Medical Library

• Suzanne Karr Schmidt – Rare Books
• 
Marisa Anne Bass – Rare Books
• 
Jane Phillips Conroy and Glen Conroy – Tour of Anatomy Labs

3:30pm BREAK

4:15pm KEYNOTE ADDRESS 
EPNEC Center
Introduction by: Rebecca Messbarger (Washington University in St. Louis)
Sachiko Kusukawa (Cambridge University) The Body in the Book: the Fabrica and the Epitome (1543)


5:45 - 7:30pm RECEPTION
EPNEC Center

Image: Hand Colored Frontispiece to Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica; sourced here. Citation: "This presentation copy for Charles V is the only one known to have been hand colored under the direction of Vesalius. It is, by way of an anonymous donor, now in the New York Public Library. This image is from their Seeing is Believing exhibition."