The prosomeric model was postulated jointly by L. Puelles and J. L. R. Rubenstein in 1993 and has been developed since by means of minor changes and a major update in 2012. This article explains the progressive academic and scientific antecedents leading LP to this collaboration and its subsequent developments. Other antecedents due to earlier neuroembryologists that also proposed neuromeric brain models since the late 19th century, as well as those who defended the alternative columnar model, are presented and explained. The circumstances that apparently caused the differential success of the neuromeric models in the recent neurobiological field are also explored.