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The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.

When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.

In this ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.

Episode 8: The genius of Vesalius - science and salvation

In 1543, a scientific and artistic phenomenon emerges into the world. With a hefty thud. De humani corporis fabrica – on the fabric of the human body – by a Flemish artist known by his Latin name, Vesalius. This book was full of the most gorgeous illustrations of anatomy, based on Vesalius' own dissections. Its publication marks a watershed in the history of anatomy. Not only was it the most accurate depiction of human anatomy to date, it directly contradicted the anatomy of the Roman Galen, which had gone unchallenged for more than a millennium.

Presenter - Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4