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Details
COLUMBO, Matteo Realdo (ca. 1510-1559). De re anatomica libri XV. Venice: Nicolaus Bevilacqua, 1559.
2o (316 x 221 mm). Full-page woodcut title showing a dissection, numerous woodcut initials, printer's woodcut device at end. (Title-page and first few leaves becoming loose, a one-inch hole in text on H3 [piece present laid in loose], some light browning and minor marginal staining.) Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, title hand-lettered on upper cover and spine (boards a bit bowed, some binding defects).
FIRST EDITION, second issue, with the dedication to Pope Pius IV and the text reset on the following three pages. It is believed that following the deaths of both Columbo and Pope Paul IV (the original dedicatee), Columbo's sons immediately reissued the book with a new dedication and mentioning the author's death.
"Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome...He described the pulmonary circulation but may have read the account of Servetus published six years previously. He gave a clear description of the mode of action of the pulmonary, cardiac, and aortic valves" (Garrison-Morton).
The woodcut title was clearly influenced by Vesalius's De Fabrica, showing the author presiding over a dissection in progress. Except for the title the work is unillustrated--according to tradition the work was to have been illustrated by Michelangelo. Adams C-2402; Garrison-Morton 378.1; Osler 897; Norman 501.
2o (316 x 221 mm). Full-page woodcut title showing a dissection, numerous woodcut initials, printer's woodcut device at end. (Title-page and first few leaves becoming loose, a one-inch hole in text on H3 [piece present laid in loose], some light browning and minor marginal staining.) Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, title hand-lettered on upper cover and spine (boards a bit bowed, some binding defects).
FIRST EDITION, second issue, with the dedication to Pope Pius IV and the text reset on the following three pages. It is believed that following the deaths of both Columbo and Pope Paul IV (the original dedicatee), Columbo's sons immediately reissued the book with a new dedication and mentioning the author's death.
"Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome...He described the pulmonary circulation but may have read the account of Servetus published six years previously. He gave a clear description of the mode of action of the pulmonary, cardiac, and aortic valves" (Garrison-Morton).
The woodcut title was clearly influenced by Vesalius's De Fabrica, showing the author presiding over a dissection in progress. Except for the title the work is unillustrated--according to tradition the work was to have been illustrated by Michelangelo. Adams C-2402; Garrison-Morton 378.1; Osler 897; Norman 501.