Van den Spiegel en zijn lijn

Adriaan van den Spiegel or Spigelius (1578-1625) was born in Flanders to protestant parents. His father was court surgeon to William, Prince of Orange. Adriaan studied medicine in Leiden and obtained a doctoral degree in Padua. In 1616, after a period as physician to the German-Dutch student community in Padua and as court physician in central Europe, he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery, succeeding Fabritius (1533-1619) and Casserius (1552-1616). He planned to publish a modern atlas of anatomy with etchings from the legacy of Casserius, to replace Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica libri septem of 1543. Unfortunately he was cut short by death, like his predecessor. Eventually his pupil Bucretius published the atlas in 1627, with 78 of Casserius’ illustrations and 20 new ones. In the text Spigelius calls attention to the aponeurotic fascia of the transverse and oblique abdominal muscles, on either side of the rectus abdominis muscle. He proposes the name linea semilunaris, now the official term.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: J.P. Gijselhart works part time for the Association of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Vereniging Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde), Amsterdam.