Michael Servetus et la circulation du sang

Michael Servetus and the Circulation of Blood. The History of a Mistaken Idea


CSMBR Upcoming Lecture



Justo Hernandez

28 April 2026 – 5 PM (CET)



In 1628, Harvey's anatomical demonstration of the circulation of the blood opened a new path in the history of medicine. However, while this demonstration was groundbreaking, the concept of blood circulation had already been explored by numerous thinkers, ranging from Ibn al-Nafis to Realdo Colombo, Michael Servetus and Andrea Cesalpino.

While briefly touching on their individual merits, this lecture will focus specifically on the contribution of Michael Servetus (c. 1509–1553).

A Spanish theologian and physician, now mostly remembered for two things: being executed for anti-Trinitarian and Anabaptist heresy by the Genevans under Calvin, and publishing a work titled Christianismi Restitutio containing a description of blood passing through the lungs.

Published in early 1553, Servetus's Restitutio went unnoticed by medical scholars for well over a hundred years, until it was rediscovered in the eighteenth century by the French encyclopedists Diderot and D'Alembert, who credited Servetus with discovering the circulation of the blood before Harvey.

By examining Servetus's work, I will assert that this attribution was anachronistic and that his idea of circulation sought to resolve a theological rather than an anatomical dilemma: how the soul entered the body.



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