Principles of somatic fragmentation: genealogy and alternatives

The origin of the human body self-cognition procedure widely practiced in the early European period is described in the article. The author demonstrates that a model of the fragmented human body appears in anatomical theatres of the XVI-XVIII centuries. Analyzing the central theoretical principles of the “new science”, the author demonstrates that Da Vinci's heritage is characterized by alternative anatomic intuition, which had a rather slight effect on the new science development and was neither appreciated nor recognized by the emerging European culture. Vesalius' understanding of the human body was conditioned by the existing constants. This cultural choice was determined by a set of metaphysical ideas characteristic of the epoch. A model of the fragmented body in the scientific anatomy of the time was intrinsic to the mechanistic understanding of nature that, in many respects, contributed to its legitimization.