Marco Catani
Neuroanatomy and Tractography Brain Laboratory
Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences
Institute of Psychiatry
Kings College
London, UK

Stefano Sandrone
Neuroanatomy and Tractography Brain Laboratory
Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences
Institute of Psychiatry
Kings College
London, UK

"Marco Catani and Stefano Sandrone rehearse the life and labors of Andreas Vesalius and his influence on contemporary neuroscience; in offering the modern reader a new and lively translation of De humani corporis fabrica libri septi (1543), Book 7, the authors make an outstanding contribution to scholarship and the history of neuroscience that is much to be admired. --Professor Alastair Compston, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Neurology, Cambridge, UK

"What a rich celebration of Andreas Vesalius' birth half a millennium ago! Vesalius, the father of modern anatomy, and the history of neuroanatomy ever since the appearance of his stunning atlas of human anatomy in 1543, come to life in this highly readable and richly illustrated volume, which also contains the authors' translation of Vesalius' text." --Professor Willem J. M. Levelt, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

"From Vesalius, Renaissance pioneer of human dissection, to contemporary MRI pictures of the connectome, this gorgeously illustrated book retraces five centuries of efforts to map the human brain. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of neuroscience and its modern-day developments." --Professor Stainslas DeHaene, Collège de France, Paris, France

"This is a delightfully readable book. The authors combine the colorful biography of Vesalius with a lucid translation of his revolutionary anatomical discoveries. The lavishly illustrated volume also offers keen insights into the history of neuroscience as it was being transformed by Vesalius and his contemporaries from a philosophical into an empirical field of inquiry." --Professor Marsel Mesulam, MD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL

"Brain Renaissance epitomizes Calvino's points on why we should read classics. The authors make Vesalius reaching out to us from the pages of this captivating volume like a clued-up old friend, conversing unflappably on buttocks of the brain and the seat of the soul. As a result, we feel more erudite, and we could smugly assert that we have 're-read' such a great classic." --Professor Sergio Della Sala, Human Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh, UK

"In Brain Renaissance, neuroscientists Marco Catani and Stefano Sandrone present a translation from the Latin of the Fabrica's last volume, which focuses on the brain. Through it we can appreciate Vesalius's extraordinary attention to detail, and his willingness to believe his eyes, even when what he saw contradicted established knowledge." Nature

"This book is a compact and historically important contribution of interest to historians of science, especially biology. But I feel it is even more valuable for those teaching neuroscience in all its guises and at whatever levels, in universities and medical schools. There are lots of lecture tidbits at the very least, helping put our modern conceits as part of a long journey to understand mind and behavior." --Gordon M. Burghardt, PsycCRITIQUES