Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, originally called Weiss, was born at Frankfurt on the Oder in 1697. There his father was professor of medicine until 1702 when he was transferred to the chair of medicine at Leiden University. Thus young Bernhard began his education in the Netherlands at the age of twelve, studying under the famous Govert Bidloo and Herman Boerhaave. After a further period of training in anatomy and botany in Paris, he was recalled in 1721 to Leiden on the recommendation of Boerhaave to teach surgery and anatomy.

He soon became one of the most well-known anatomists of his time, famous for his studies of bones and muscles and for greatly improving the accuracy of anatomical illustrations. He became professor of anatomy and surgery at Leiden, then one of Europe’s foremost centers of medical education, and devoted his life to the meticulous study of the human form. In 1745 he was also appointed professor of the practice of medicine.

In collaboration with Hermann Boerhaave, he edited the works of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey. His greatest achievement was the monumental Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (1747). Working with the gifted engraver Jan Wandelaar, who lived for a long time in his house, he produced plates of extraordinary clarity and elegance, not merely decorative but constructed with mathematical care, using grids and careful measurements to ensure that the bones and muscles were in correct proportion. The plates are also remarkable for their striking backgrounds, famously depicting the celebrated rhinoceros Clara, which had recently captivated European audiences. But the human skeletons remain central, each vertebra and rib rendered with great refinement.

Albinus emphasized careful preparation of specimens and improved techniques of preservation. His lectures at Leiden were reputed for their clarity and order, and students from across Europe attended and carried his methods back to their home countries. His work marked a high point in anatomical illustration before the advent of modern imaging technologies. Relying on his eyes and hands and achieving remarkable precision, Albinus carefully described bones and their muscular attachments, reinforcing the structural understanding essential for surgery and clinical medicine. By the time of his death in 1770, Albinus had secured a reputation as one of Europe’s foremost anatomists. Today his plates are still prized by art students and medical historians as objects of aesthetic grace and scientific integrity.