The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal

Cajals drawings are for the first time seen here in high definition and as they truly were before appearing in his books and papers. The commentary accompanying each photo is superb and by highly qualified individuals. The book includes beautiful black and white period photos of Cajal and his lab and his instruments. I have two of his most notorious late 1880's / early 1900's books and these illustrations far outclass those woodcuts. This is magnificent photography of his original drawings. It is no wonder that even in the 21st century, books like Gray's Anatomy still contain several of his illustrations. This book is a must for anybody who knows and appreciates the work of Cajal and well worth the price.

review written by David A BronczykI've been an ardent admirer of Ramon y Cajal's work for many years, and I find myself saddened by his obscurity and underappreciated accomplishments. He single-handedly revolutionized our understanding of the central nervous system, working only with primitive equipment and his own staggering drawing skills a full century in advance of the development of fMRI scanners, scanning electron microscopes, and EEG spectrograms. This wonderful book puts Ramon y Cajal's life work in artful perspective; the biographical sketches and photographs at the beginning of the book provide an intimate view of the man, and the drawings ... well, they speak for themselves! Ramon y Cajal correctly derived the flow of neural-signalling traffic in the brain by studying the structure of neurons -- and he artfully indicted this flow with arrows! -- and many of his findings have only recently been confirmed by brain science. The man was a prescient genius. And, I very highly recommend this beautifully designed and printed book!

I'm a Neuroscientist, so I'm a huge fan of Santiago Ramon y Cajal and have spent hours in lectures hearing about his incredible work. This is a fantastic piece of art and makes an excellent coffee table book for our nerdy home! It is really interesting and informative, not to mention beautiful. The size of the book makes it an excellent accent piece! If someone in your life is studying Neuro, buy them this book!! It would make an incredible gift.

Bought this book as a gift to my daughter who is studding biology and has shown an interest in neurology. The illustrations are awesome, ready to transport you to the time of this great doctor and his studies of the brain and nervous system.She really enjoyed the book and the chance to know a little more about Cajal.

Got this as a present for my cousin who is a Neuroscientist and he loved it. I thought the art looked really beautiful but he explained the historical and scientific significance of the art. 10/10 recommend for neuroscience gifts

Santiago Ramon y Cajal, using early 20th century technology, produced a great number of amazing drawings, showing microscopic anatomy of neural tissue (brain spinal cord, nerves). He was able to infer, pretty much correctly, a number of physiologic principles only confirmed many decades later.A great gift for a neurologist, neurosurgeon or ophthalmologist!

Love it! It arrived perfect. I highly recommend this book, for everyone!! I’m enjoying it, the images, the content. Now I’m a fan of Ramon and cajal’s both scientific and artistic work

This is a beautiful book of the drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal.