Who described the circulation of blood, marking the era of systemic blood circulation?

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Systemic circulation is the movement of blood in a closed loop driven by the heart, supplying the body and then returning blood to the heart. William Harvey demonstrated that blood travels in a continuous circuit: it is pumped from the left ventricle into the arteries, flows through the body, returns via the veins to the right atrium, and is recirculated. He showed the heart acts as a muscular pump and that valves in veins prevent backflow, establishing one-way flow and a complete circuit. This work unified our understanding of how blood moves through the entire body, not just through individual organs. Earlier ideas about blood origin and flow were gradually revised—while Ibn al-Nafis described pulmonary circulation and Vesalius refined anatomy, Harvey’s description is what defined the era of systemic circulation.