Bidloo attended Frederik Ruysch's anatomical lectures at the Surgeons' Guild in Amsterdam, before qualifying as a surgeon at the University of Franeker in 1682. Following the success of his anatomical atlas, he became Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Hague in 1688, succeeding Anton Nuck. In 1690 he was appointed by William of Orange to General Superintendant of all physicians, apothecaries and surgeons, and also of all civic and military hospitals in the Netherlands. In 1694 he again succeeded Nuck, this time as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Leiden. He was also appointed physician in ordinary to the sickly William III, accompanying him to England, and attending him on his final illness in 1702. After the king's death he returned to his teaching at Leiden, which had been neglected for several years. Albinus was one of his students. Bidloo was also a minor poet and playwright Anatomia humani corporis is one of the finest anatomical atlases ever printed, as well as one of the largest, measuring 51 x 36 cm., and weighing eight kilograms. The 105 plates were drawn by Gérard de Lairesse (1640-1711), and engraved possibly by Abraham Bloteling, inventor of the rocker tool for mezzotint engraving. Others claim that Pieter and Philip van Gunst engraved the plates. They introduce Dutch still-life painting into anatomical illustration. Figures are depicted almost tenderly, with such homely touches as nightclothes, bedding (plate 33), or ordinary household objects, such as jars, books (plate 77). The raw dissected parts contrast with the soft uncut flesh (plate 28). Naturalistic detail include a live fly on an open abdomen (plate 52). Eighty-three of the plates depict the body in various stages of dissection, some providing details of the instruments used. Plate 4 shows the skin and hair under magnification, a technique Bidloo learned from van Leeuwenhoek. Of the remaining twenty-two plates, three are of surface anatomy, and nineteen on osteology. The first three plates depict nude figures (frontal view of male, frontal and rear view of female), set in garden landscapes with Grecian urns, drapery, trees and statues. Plates 87 and 88 show skeletons with tombs in the foreground, and hills and houses in the background. The plates are accompanied by a brief Latin text, too lacking in detail to be instructive. A Dutch translation was published in 1690. Although the atlas established Bidloo's name, his anatomical preparations were not always accurate, and Lairesse often provided what was lacking, and sometimes even altered the position of organs and muscles. Despite the anatomical shortcomings of the illustrations, the artistic value of the atlas exceeds the anatomical, which was criticised by Ruysch and others. Bidloo was a difficult personality and made many enemies. Ruysch's justified criticism of his atlas led to an acrimonious polemic that became personal. Bidloo also spent time in jail for publishing a pamphlet criticising the judges of Holland, and was released only after the intervention of William III. Following the monarch's death, Bidloo wrote a pamphlet in which he attacked the other physicians attending the king. His most famous polemic, however, was with William Cowper, who published the plates from Bidloo's atlas, with a new text.
