Bernhard Siegfried Albinus

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697 to 1770), originally named Weiss, was a German-born Dutch anatomist and professor of medicine at the University of Leiden, as his father Bernhard Albinus had been. Born in Frankfurt on the Oder, he began his studies at Leiden at twelve under teachers including Hermann Boerhaave, studied anatomy and botany in Paris, and was recalled to Leiden in 1719 as lecturer in anatomy and surgery. He became professor of anatomy in 1721 and professor of the practice of medicine in 1745, and was twice rector of the university. With Boerhaave he edited the works of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey. His best known work is the large illustrated Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani, first published in Leiden in 1747 with engravings by Jan Wandelaar. They used nets with square webbing placed between the artist and the specimen to improve accuracy, and drew an idealized perfect human from several specimens rather than one.