Details
DRYANDER, Johannes (1500-60). Anatomia capitis humani. Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus, September 1536.
4o (198 x 150 mm). Collation: A-C4 D2. 14 leaves. Roman type. 11 full-page numbered woodcuts of the anatomy of the head, printer's woodcut device on title, one 10-line and one 4-line woodcut initial. Without the folding typographic table found in some copies. (Title stained and with 4 small repaired tears, one just catching device, small internal closed tears to A2 and repaired tear to D2, both without text loss, faint red stain to first woodcut and facing page, scattered light discoloration.) Modern morocco.
Provenance: Early inscription on title (washed); Medical Society of London (ink-stamp on title and bookplate); Wellcome Historical Medical Library (withdrawal ink-stamp on verso of title).
RARE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SERIES OF PRE-VESALIAN ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATION, the first significant analysis of the anatomy of the head, and one of the earliest anatomical works with illustrations based on the author's own dissections. Dryander, also known as Eichmann, professor of medicine and mathematics at the University of Marburg, had met Vesalius while both were studying in Paris, and shared the latter's innovative views on the necessity of empirical observation in the study of anatomy and thus of the physician's obligation to carry out his own dissections. He performed some of the first public dissections in Germany, in 1534, 1536 and 1539. The present work is a report of one of the earliest of these anatomical demonstrations. Its eleven fine large woodcuts show the head in successive stages of dissection. Five of them are signed with a compass device and initials GVB or VB or G, ascribed variously to different wood engravers from the school of Hans Brosamer (cf. Choulant-Frank), and to the Basel engraver Georg Thomas (Herrlinger, History of medical illustration [1970], pp. 83-85). This very rare edition was probably printed in only a small number of copies, as a work in progress pending publication of a more comprehensive anatomical treatise, a project that was partly realized with the unfinished Anatomiae... pars prior, published the following year (see lot 77), an expanded version of the present text and illustrations.
BM/STC German, p. 255; NLM/Durling 1214; Stillwell Science 619; Wellcome 1868; Norman 656.
4o (198 x 150 mm). Collation: A-C4 D2. 14 leaves. Roman type. 11 full-page numbered woodcuts of the anatomy of the head, printer's woodcut device on title, one 10-line and one 4-line woodcut initial. Without the folding typographic table found in some copies. (Title stained and with 4 small repaired tears, one just catching device, small internal closed tears to A2 and repaired tear to D2, both without text loss, faint red stain to first woodcut and facing page, scattered light discoloration.) Modern morocco.
Provenance: Early inscription on title (washed); Medical Society of London (ink-stamp on title and bookplate); Wellcome Historical Medical Library (withdrawal ink-stamp on verso of title).
RARE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SERIES OF PRE-VESALIAN ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATION, the first significant analysis of the anatomy of the head, and one of the earliest anatomical works with illustrations based on the author's own dissections. Dryander, also known as Eichmann, professor of medicine and mathematics at the University of Marburg, had met Vesalius while both were studying in Paris, and shared the latter's innovative views on the necessity of empirical observation in the study of anatomy and thus of the physician's obligation to carry out his own dissections. He performed some of the first public dissections in Germany, in 1534, 1536 and 1539. The present work is a report of one of the earliest of these anatomical demonstrations. Its eleven fine large woodcuts show the head in successive stages of dissection. Five of them are signed with a compass device and initials GVB or VB or G, ascribed variously to different wood engravers from the school of Hans Brosamer (cf. Choulant-Frank), and to the Basel engraver Georg Thomas (Herrlinger, History of medical illustration [1970], pp. 83-85). This very rare edition was probably printed in only a small number of copies, as a work in progress pending publication of a more comprehensive anatomical treatise, a project that was partly realized with the unfinished Anatomiae... pars prior, published the following year (see lot 77), an expanded version of the present text and illustrations.
BM/STC German, p. 255; NLM/Durling 1214; Stillwell Science 619; Wellcome 1868; Norman 656.