My Blog
Welcome to the official blog of Ron Blumenfeld. Be sure to buy my new book, The King’s Anatomist and check out my other writings!
Vesalius Fans Reconvene – This Time in Antwerp
2014 was a big year for Andreas Vesalius. It was the great anatomist’s 500th birthday – a great milestone if your name is still spoken after five centuries. Devoted Vesalius fans could not let that year pass without gathering on the Greek island of Zakynthos, where he...
Oy! Jewish Medical Students in Renaissance Italy
The year 2022 marked the 800th anniversary of the founding of the University of Padua, one of the oldest universities in the world. The celebration included an exhibition done in conjunction with the Jewish Heritage Museum of Padua that offered a fascinating glimpse...
The Deep Meaning of Listerine
Consumer products come and go. Some exist only for the few weeks before a holiday; others hang around for years, even decades. But others approach immortality, still going strong after a century or more in the marketplace. To name a few: Clorox (1913); Ex-Lax (1906);...
Happy Birthday to The King’s Anatomist
October 12, 2021 marked the official launch of The King’s Anatomist into the literary world – a very big and crowded world, as it turns out. Estimates vary for many reasons, but if that day was a typical one in the publishing industry, about 2,000 American titles –...
Galen – Wrong, But Still Awesome
Contemporary medical scientists and practitioners have a deep understanding of human structure and function – from the organs and tissues under the skin to the multitude of cells of which they are built. We’ve delved deeper into the structures and biochemical...
Come On, America. Time to Do Something about Mass Murders.
This was going to be a wonky blog about the Greek physician Galen and his bizarre notions – by modern standards – of how the body works. It was to be a follow up to a blog from last August about him and his anatomical writings. But Galen will wait. The horror of the...