The title page of the Fabrica is one of the most iconic images in the history of medicine. Not only is it an artistic tour de force for both the artist and the blockcutter, it is rich in symbolic detail. At the center of the crowded scene Vesalius stands with his right hand in the bowels of the female cadaver he is dissecting. The fact that he is touching the body himself emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience and observation; that he is touching a female demonstrates his mastery over the deepest secrets of human anatomy, which Galen failed to do. The importance of the anatomist’s role is further emphasized by the fact that the rector and ostensor have been banished to a place of irrelevancy beneath the dissecting table.