The time of the Renaissance led to a revival of ancient things; Galen's works were re-translated from Arabic into Greek and Latin. By 1525, Galen's entire works were published in Greek and then into Latin. Galen's works soon came to be challenged through the inquisitive nature of people from the Renaissance.

The more artists and surgeons studied anatomy and the workings of the body, the more discrepancies were pointed out in Galen's works. The medical world seemed to split into two camps; physicians who held strongly to the ideas of Galen and those who explored the human body through experimenting and experience.

Role of the church:

The churches' attitude towards medicine had a profound influence on its progress and developments
The church continually encouraged people to pray for their sins and ask for forgiveness to receive healing from their illnesses
The church was responsible for setting up university schools throughout Europe that were used to educate people about Hippocratic and Galenic texts
The church insisted on the use of Galenic texts and this can be seen as a limiting condition on developing understandings of the how the body worked

Vesalius and anatomy:

Andreas Vesalius (1514-64) was born in Brussels and studied in Paris and Padua, Italy
He was appointed professor of surgery and anatomy in Padua
He carried out his own dissections, believing anatomy was key to understanding how the body functioned
Vesalius challenged Galen's ideas of anatomy
Vesalius views were more accurate as he studied with human bodies rather than animals
Vesalius encouraged other doctors to approach human anatomy in this manner
In 1543, Vesalius published Fabric of the Human Body, which had major influences on medicine in Britain

Paré and treating wounds:

Ambroise Paré (1510-90) started work as an apprentice to his brother who was a barber-surgeon
He served as a surgeon in the French army for 30 years
In the siege of Milan in 1536, he ran out of hot oil to cauterise wounds
Instead, he mixed egg yolk, turpentine and oil of roses to dress raw wounds
This was much less painful and was more effective in encouraging healing
Paré utilised ligatures to tie-off wounds after amputation and found that the wounds healed better
Soon after, he developed artificial limbs for those who lost a hand or leg due to their wounds