What is the History of Anatomy?

Andreas Vesalius
Belgian anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius helped establish the foundations of modern anatomy in the 16th century by dissecting human cadavers and publishing his results. He served as physician to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his son, Philip II, king of Spain. This portrait is by Dutch-born English painter Peter Lely.

The oldest known systematic study of anatomy is contained in an Egyptian papyrus dating from about 1600 bc. The treatise reveals knowledge of the larger viscera but little concept of their functions. About the same degree of knowledge is reflected in the writings of the Greek physician Hippocrates in the 5th century bc. In the 4th century bc Aristotle greatly increased anatomical knowledge of animals. The first real progress in the science of human anatomy was made in the following century by the Greek physicians Herophilus and Erasistratus, who dissected human cadavers and were the first to distinguish many functions, including those of the nervous and muscular systems. Little further progress was made by the ancient Romans or by the Arabs. The Renaissance first influenced the science of anatomy in the latter half of the 16th century.
Modern anatomy began with the publication in 1543 of the work of the Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius. Before the publication of this classical work anatomists had been so bound by tradition that the writings of authorities of more than 1000 years earlier, such as the Greek physician Galen, who had been restricted to the dissection of animals, were accepted in lieu of actual observation. Vesalius and other Renaissance anatomists, however, based their descriptions on their own observations of human corpses, thus setting the pattern for subsequent study in anatomy.
Source: encarta encyclopedia