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MHSNJ Zoom Program—Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 7 pm ET
Speaker: Jeffrey M. Levine, MD, AGSF
Topic: Secrets of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica of Vesalius
SUMMARY
Andreas Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica (“On the Fabric of the Human Body”), first published in 1543, stands as the cornerstone of modern anatomy. Its detailed dissections, accompanied by artistically executed woodcuts, have long attracted the attention of scholars. Yet, elements within the book’s elaborate frontispiece and richly decorated initials have received less scrutiny, if not been entirely overlooked.
This lecture explores those neglected visual details, uncovering hidden layers of medical history and bringing to light a Jewish presence that has remained invisible and overlooked through nearly five centuries of Vesalian scholarship.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Jeffrey M. Levine is a fellowship-trained geriatrician and nationally recognized expert in wound care and pressure injuries. He graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry, Newark, in 1981and is currently Clinical Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Dr. Levine has published more than 50 papers and chapters, including the section on pressure injuries and wound care in the Geriatric Review Syllabus, published by the American Geriatrics Society, which is required reading for doctors studying to take the Geriatric Board Examinations.
As an armchair historian, one of Dr. Levine’s favorite topics is the life and works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels.
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