The prostate was first formally identified by Venetian anatomist Niccolò Massa in "Anatomiae libri introductorius" (Introduction to Anatomy) 1536 and illustrated by Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius in "Tabulae anatomicae sex" (six anatomical tables) in 1538. Massa described it as a "glandular flesh upon which rests the neck of the bladder," and Vesalius as a "glandular body". The first time a word similar to 'prostate' was used to describe the gland is credited to André du Laurens in 1600, who described it as a term already in use by anatomists at the time. The term was however used at least as early as 1549 by French surgeon Ambroise Pare.