Details
VESALIUS, ANDREAS. De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Joannes Oporinus June 1543.
Folio, 415 x 285mm. (16 3/8 x 11 1/4in.), contemporary blind-stamped calf over wood boards, rebacked, worn, lacks clasps, new endpapers, lacks one leaf: s1 (pp. 381/2 [i.e.481/2]; pp. 381/2 supplied from the 1555 edition but its text does not correspond), perforated library stamps on title (twice), *2, I3, m3, "m3" [i.e. m4] and p4; tiny hole catching three letters on *3, folding diagram m3 torn and repaired, minor repaired tears to E1, O4 and O5, slight tears to Z4 and n6, title soiled and crudely repaired at edges affecting subject, *3-[*6] with edges strengthened, R5 stained, other, more minor, staining, female genitalia inked over on title woodcut.
FIRST EDITION, with the bifolia m3 (woodcut diagram of the circulatory system) and p4 (diagram of the nervous system) and the unpaginated cancel leaf signed m3 with eight woodcut anatomical details intended to be cut out and superimposed on the woodcut figure on bifolium m3; pictorial woodcut title showing Vesalius dissecting a female in a theater before an enthralled throng, woodcut portrait of Vesalius on *6v, in all a series of over 200 woodcut anatomical illustrations, including 21 full-page and 2 double-page figural woodcuts showing the skeletal, muscular, vascular and nervous systems; 22 four-line, 180 seven-line and 6 fourteen-line historiated initials showing surgery; all of the illustrations after an unknown artist probably from the Circle of Tiziano Vecellio; woodcut printer's device on final page.
"It cannot be denied that the Fabrica is the most famous anatomical work ever published, to this day one of the most beautiful in existence....This first edition...is the heart of any library of medical history."--Heirs of Hippocrates.
Adams 603; Dibner 122; Cushing/Vesalius VI.A.-1; Garrison and Morton 375; Grolier and Horblit 98; Heirs of Hippocrates 172; Honeyman sale 3043; NLM/Durling 4577; Osler 567; PMM 71; Waller 9899.
Provenance: Jesuits, Ingolstadt, contemporary inscription on title-page; Stanford University.
Folio, 415 x 285mm. (16 3/8 x 11 1/4in.), contemporary blind-stamped calf over wood boards, rebacked, worn, lacks clasps, new endpapers, lacks one leaf: s1 (pp. 381/2 [i.e.481/2]; pp. 381/2 supplied from the 1555 edition but its text does not correspond), perforated library stamps on title (twice), *2, I3, m3, "m3" [i.e. m4] and p4; tiny hole catching three letters on *3, folding diagram m3 torn and repaired, minor repaired tears to E1, O4 and O5, slight tears to Z4 and n6, title soiled and crudely repaired at edges affecting subject, *3-[*6] with edges strengthened, R5 stained, other, more minor, staining, female genitalia inked over on title woodcut.
FIRST EDITION, with the bifolia m3 (woodcut diagram of the circulatory system) and p4 (diagram of the nervous system) and the unpaginated cancel leaf signed m3 with eight woodcut anatomical details intended to be cut out and superimposed on the woodcut figure on bifolium m3; pictorial woodcut title showing Vesalius dissecting a female in a theater before an enthralled throng, woodcut portrait of Vesalius on *6v, in all a series of over 200 woodcut anatomical illustrations, including 21 full-page and 2 double-page figural woodcuts showing the skeletal, muscular, vascular and nervous systems; 22 four-line, 180 seven-line and 6 fourteen-line historiated initials showing surgery; all of the illustrations after an unknown artist probably from the Circle of Tiziano Vecellio; woodcut printer's device on final page.
"It cannot be denied that the Fabrica is the most famous anatomical work ever published, to this day one of the most beautiful in existence....This first edition...is the heart of any library of medical history."--Heirs of Hippocrates.
Adams 603; Dibner 122; Cushing/Vesalius VI.A.-1; Garrison and Morton 375; Grolier and Horblit 98; Heirs of Hippocrates 172; Honeyman sale 3043; NLM/Durling 4577; Osler 567; PMM 71; Waller 9899.
Provenance: Jesuits, Ingolstadt, contemporary inscription on title-page; Stanford University.