Cerebri Anatome: Cui Accessit Nervorum Descriptio & Usus

As professor of natural philosophy at Oxford University, Thomas Willis (1621-1675) applied his medical training to theological questions about the human soul. Like Descartes, Willis (“the father of neurology”) extended his philosophical investigations to the brain, looking for connections between the soul and human anatomy. Instead of the pineal gland, however, Willis focused on the cerebral arterial circle, which supplies blood to the brain and surrounding structures. Sir Christopher Wren, the English architect best known for St. Paul’s Cathedral, applied sophisticated principles of perspective to the illustrations for Cerebri Anatome. As a result, this book became the standard treatise on brain anatomy for over a century.