Details
VESALIUS, ANDREAS. De Humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: (Joannes Oporinus, June 1543).
Large folio, 421 x 290mm. (16 9/16 x 11 1/2 in.), contemporary South German blind-tooled dark brown calf over bevelled oak boards, outer roll-tooled border of 3 medallion heads and owl signed "LT" (not in Haebler), inner roll of a repeated male and female figure and a ceremonial dish, surrounding central panel divided into six squares, each containing a triple impression of either a small floral or figurative roll surrounded by four impressions of either a flower or stylized plant tool, spine in seven compartments with repeated acorn tools, contemporary brass clasps with catches (one pair original, the other supplied), edges plain, fragments from a 15th-century manuscript legal commentary used as spine lining; red morocco folding case (scuffed); skilfull restoration to joints, minor rubbing, corners worn, title a trifle soiled and with small hole at lower margin, small repairs to extreme lower margins of title and first leaf of preface, H2 with marginal repaired tear catching a shoulder note, fol. I4 torn and repaired, a very few insignificant marginal tears, a few minuscule wormholes to last 25 leaves, small dampstain in quires O-Q affecting text on fol. P2, some marginal dampstaining throughout, faint marginal foxing to a few leaves, very occasional small stains, last 2 leaves slightly creased, paper flaw to colophon leaf.
FIRST EDITION, roman type, shoulder notes and legends to illustrations in italic type, letterpress title printed in cartouche within full-page woodcut showing the author conducting an anatomical dissection in a surgical theater crowded with students and doctors, woodcut portrait of the author at age 28 on *6v, over 200 woodcut anatomical illustrations, including 21 full-page cuts of the skeletal, muscular, vascular and nervous systems, most depicted against an Italian landscape background, by an unknown artist from the circle of Titian, the illustrations number- or letter-keyed to accompanying text, some of the smaller cuts possibly after drawings by Vesalius (who commissioned the illustrations and closely supervised their production); with the inserted full sheets bound in after m2 and p3 as bifolia attached to stubs (bound in as folding plates in some copies), the first showing a woodcut diagram of the circulatory system, the second showing a diagram of the nervous system (both printed from blocks used in the concurrently published Epitome), and the inserted leaf signed "m3" containing eight woodcut anatomical details intended to be cut out and superimposed on the woodcut figure on the preceding bifolium; 6 fourteen-line, approximately 180 seven-line, and 22 four-line historiated woodcut initials, depicting putti and dwarfed men engaged in dissection, surgery, childbirth and various acts of medicine or mischief, woodcut printer's device on verso of colophon leaf.
Adams V-603; Choulant-Frank, pp. 178-80; Cushing VI.A-1; Dibner Heralds of Science 122; Garrison and Morton 375; Grolier/Horblit 98; Grolier/Norman 18; Heirs of Hippocrates 172; NLM/Durling 4577; Norman 2137; Osler 567; PMM 71; Waller 9899.
THE HONEYMAN COPY OF "THE MOST FAMOUS ANATOMICAL WORK EVER PUBLISHED, TO THIS DAY ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN EXISTENCE" (Heirs of Hippocrates). "Publication of this book was the greatest event in medical history since the work of Galen" (Garrison-Morton). "The history of anatomy is divided into two periods, pre-Vesalian and post-Vesalian" (Printing and the Mind of Man). Galen had based his study of anatomy on animal dissection; it was Vesalius's monumental contribution to medicine to preach the necessity of empirical observation based on direct study of the human body through anatomical dissection performed by the physician himself. In 1537, after receiving a doctorate and appointment as lecturer from the University of Padua at the age of 23, Vesalius immediately broke with tradition by performing the dissections himself during his lectures instead of assigning the task to a barber-surgeon. Immensely popular as a lecturer, Vesalius published for his students a series of anatomical charts, a dissection manual, and a work on therapeutic blood-letting, before concentrating on the great anatomical monograph that was to be the Fabrica.
In the seven books of the Fabrica, on bones, muscles, the vascular system, the nervous system, the abdomninal viscera, thoracic organs and the brain, Vesalius methodically set forth his own observations on human anatomy, in so doing refuting numerous Galenic assumptions and providing the first accurate account of the human body. This he achieved equally through the text and the closely linked illustrations, whose technical brilliance show them to have been executed under his direct supervision by highly accomplished engravers. "Not only is the quality of draftsmanship and precision of detail immensely superior to that of earlier books but the marginal references to the illustrations, which in some instances relate a textual description to several illustrations located in different parts of the work, are also entirely without precedence. For the first time the pedagogic purpose of illustrations was achieved...[this is] not appreciated however, unless text and illustrations are studied together... In the Fabrica Vesalius made many contributions to the body of anatomical knowledge, by description of structures hitherto unknown, by detailed descriptions of structures known only in the most elementary terms, and by the correction of erroneous descriptions... [But] more important than the anatomical information contained in the Fabrica was the scientific principle enunciated therein. This was beyond criticism, fundamental to anatomical research, and has remained so" (DSB).
Provenance: A few contemporary marginalia, in Greek and Latin -- Robert Honeyman IV (sale, Sotheby's London, Part VII, 19-20 May 1981, lot 3043).
Large folio, 421 x 290mm. (16 9/16 x 11 1/2 in.), contemporary South German blind-tooled dark brown calf over bevelled oak boards, outer roll-tooled border of 3 medallion heads and owl signed "LT" (not in Haebler), inner roll of a repeated male and female figure and a ceremonial dish, surrounding central panel divided into six squares, each containing a triple impression of either a small floral or figurative roll surrounded by four impressions of either a flower or stylized plant tool, spine in seven compartments with repeated acorn tools, contemporary brass clasps with catches (one pair original, the other supplied), edges plain, fragments from a 15th-century manuscript legal commentary used as spine lining; red morocco folding case (scuffed); skilfull restoration to joints, minor rubbing, corners worn, title a trifle soiled and with small hole at lower margin, small repairs to extreme lower margins of title and first leaf of preface, H2 with marginal repaired tear catching a shoulder note, fol. I4 torn and repaired, a very few insignificant marginal tears, a few minuscule wormholes to last 25 leaves, small dampstain in quires O-Q affecting text on fol. P2, some marginal dampstaining throughout, faint marginal foxing to a few leaves, very occasional small stains, last 2 leaves slightly creased, paper flaw to colophon leaf.
FIRST EDITION, roman type, shoulder notes and legends to illustrations in italic type, letterpress title printed in cartouche within full-page woodcut showing the author conducting an anatomical dissection in a surgical theater crowded with students and doctors, woodcut portrait of the author at age 28 on *6v, over 200 woodcut anatomical illustrations, including 21 full-page cuts of the skeletal, muscular, vascular and nervous systems, most depicted against an Italian landscape background, by an unknown artist from the circle of Titian, the illustrations number- or letter-keyed to accompanying text, some of the smaller cuts possibly after drawings by Vesalius (who commissioned the illustrations and closely supervised their production); with the inserted full sheets bound in after m2 and p3 as bifolia attached to stubs (bound in as folding plates in some copies), the first showing a woodcut diagram of the circulatory system, the second showing a diagram of the nervous system (both printed from blocks used in the concurrently published Epitome), and the inserted leaf signed "m3" containing eight woodcut anatomical details intended to be cut out and superimposed on the woodcut figure on the preceding bifolium; 6 fourteen-line, approximately 180 seven-line, and 22 four-line historiated woodcut initials, depicting putti and dwarfed men engaged in dissection, surgery, childbirth and various acts of medicine or mischief, woodcut printer's device on verso of colophon leaf.
Adams V-603; Choulant-Frank, pp. 178-80; Cushing VI.A-1; Dibner Heralds of Science 122; Garrison and Morton 375; Grolier/Horblit 98; Grolier/Norman 18; Heirs of Hippocrates 172; NLM/Durling 4577; Norman 2137; Osler 567; PMM 71; Waller 9899.
THE HONEYMAN COPY OF "THE MOST FAMOUS ANATOMICAL WORK EVER PUBLISHED, TO THIS DAY ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN EXISTENCE" (Heirs of Hippocrates). "Publication of this book was the greatest event in medical history since the work of Galen" (Garrison-Morton). "The history of anatomy is divided into two periods, pre-Vesalian and post-Vesalian" (Printing and the Mind of Man). Galen had based his study of anatomy on animal dissection; it was Vesalius's monumental contribution to medicine to preach the necessity of empirical observation based on direct study of the human body through anatomical dissection performed by the physician himself. In 1537, after receiving a doctorate and appointment as lecturer from the University of Padua at the age of 23, Vesalius immediately broke with tradition by performing the dissections himself during his lectures instead of assigning the task to a barber-surgeon. Immensely popular as a lecturer, Vesalius published for his students a series of anatomical charts, a dissection manual, and a work on therapeutic blood-letting, before concentrating on the great anatomical monograph that was to be the Fabrica.
In the seven books of the Fabrica, on bones, muscles, the vascular system, the nervous system, the abdomninal viscera, thoracic organs and the brain, Vesalius methodically set forth his own observations on human anatomy, in so doing refuting numerous Galenic assumptions and providing the first accurate account of the human body. This he achieved equally through the text and the closely linked illustrations, whose technical brilliance show them to have been executed under his direct supervision by highly accomplished engravers. "Not only is the quality of draftsmanship and precision of detail immensely superior to that of earlier books but the marginal references to the illustrations, which in some instances relate a textual description to several illustrations located in different parts of the work, are also entirely without precedence. For the first time the pedagogic purpose of illustrations was achieved...[this is] not appreciated however, unless text and illustrations are studied together... In the Fabrica Vesalius made many contributions to the body of anatomical knowledge, by description of structures hitherto unknown, by detailed descriptions of structures known only in the most elementary terms, and by the correction of erroneous descriptions... [But] more important than the anatomical information contained in the Fabrica was the scientific principle enunciated therein. This was beyond criticism, fundamental to anatomical research, and has remained so" (DSB).
Provenance: A few contemporary marginalia, in Greek and Latin -- Robert Honeyman IV (sale, Sotheby's London, Part VII, 19-20 May 1981, lot 3043).