Andreas Vesalius, born in Brussels in 1514, published De humani corporis fabrica in 1543, a book that set anatomy on a new footing. For centuries medical teaching had relied on the ancient physician Galen, whose anatomy had largely been based on animal dissections, mostly of apes, dogs and sheep. Vesalius dissected human bodies himself and found errors, including that the human liver has two lobes rather than five and that the human brain base lacks the rete mirabilis Galen had described. He backed every description with what he saw, and he used detailed illustrations as teaching tools.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.