.jpg?w=1)
Details
VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564). De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, June 1543.
Royal 2o (369 x 246 mm). Roman, italic, Hebrew and Greek types. The two folding sheets following m2 and p3, and the single leaf inserted in quire m ('Charta parvas aliquot figuras complectens') supplied in facsimile. Woodcut pictorial title, author portrait, over 200 woodcut illustrations, including 3 full-page skeletons and 14 full-page muscle-men, printer's device at end, and many woodcut historiated and ornamental initials from several sets. (Lacking one preliminary leaf (epistola *6),the two genuine fold-out plates and inserted leaf containing cut-outs [all supplied in facsimile], title-page laid down with other minor loss, numerous small marginal repairs, some wormtracks repaired with slight loss to letters, A5 repaired.) Modern vellum; buckram folding case.
FIRST EDITION OF 'THE MOST FAMOUS ANATOMICAL WORK EVER PUBLISHED, ... AND THE MILESTONE IN ALL MEDICAL HISTORY' (Heirs of Hippocrates). The Fabrica is 'a complete anatomical and physiological study of every part of the human body ... [dealing] with bones and muscles, blood vessels, nerves, abdominal viscera, thoracic organs and the brain' (PMM). Benefitting from the then-radical practice of dissecting the human body rather than animals, Vesalius broke new ground in his method and observations, thus fundamentally dividing the study of anatomy into pre- and post-Vesalian periods.
The Fabrica is widely considered the most beautiful medical book ever published. It combines scientific exposition, art and typography in a manner unprecedented in the 16th century and rarely equalled in later centuries. The more than 200 woodblocks for the illustrations were prepared in Venice by an anonymous artist in the school of Titian under Vesalius's supervision and shipped to the publisher in Basel with the author's precise instructions for placing them in relation to the text and for keying explanations printed in the margins to particular illustrations or details. The woodcuts were highly influential and were re-used or copied for over a century; the woodblocks themselves survived in Germany up to the Second World War. The work opens with a full-page scene of an anatomical theatre showing the dissection of a female corpse in progress; Vesalius performed one of the earliest autopsies on a female body. The 14 muscle-men stand in landscapes that together form a panorama of the Euganean Hills near Padua, where Vesalius studied and wrote his magnum opus, and even the woodcut initials, cut specially for this edition, depict activities associated with the dissecting room.
Apart from the preliminary Epistola leaf, the other missing leaves in this copy comprise the single leaf which contains small woodcuts which were originally intended to be cut out and attached as overlays to the large skeletons on the two missing fold-out leaves. Adams V-603; Cushing VI.A.-1; Dibner, Heralds of Science 122; Garrison-Morton 375; Heirs of Hippocrates 281; Grolier Medicine 18A; NLM/Durling 4577; Norman 2137; PMM 71; Wellcome 6560.
Royal 2o (369 x 246 mm). Roman, italic, Hebrew and Greek types. The two folding sheets following m2 and p3, and the single leaf inserted in quire m ('Charta parvas aliquot figuras complectens') supplied in facsimile. Woodcut pictorial title, author portrait, over 200 woodcut illustrations, including 3 full-page skeletons and 14 full-page muscle-men, printer's device at end, and many woodcut historiated and ornamental initials from several sets. (Lacking one preliminary leaf (epistola *6),the two genuine fold-out plates and inserted leaf containing cut-outs [all supplied in facsimile], title-page laid down with other minor loss, numerous small marginal repairs, some wormtracks repaired with slight loss to letters, A5 repaired.) Modern vellum; buckram folding case.
FIRST EDITION OF 'THE MOST FAMOUS ANATOMICAL WORK EVER PUBLISHED, ... AND THE MILESTONE IN ALL MEDICAL HISTORY' (Heirs of Hippocrates). The Fabrica is 'a complete anatomical and physiological study of every part of the human body ... [dealing] with bones and muscles, blood vessels, nerves, abdominal viscera, thoracic organs and the brain' (PMM). Benefitting from the then-radical practice of dissecting the human body rather than animals, Vesalius broke new ground in his method and observations, thus fundamentally dividing the study of anatomy into pre- and post-Vesalian periods.
The Fabrica is widely considered the most beautiful medical book ever published. It combines scientific exposition, art and typography in a manner unprecedented in the 16th century and rarely equalled in later centuries. The more than 200 woodblocks for the illustrations were prepared in Venice by an anonymous artist in the school of Titian under Vesalius's supervision and shipped to the publisher in Basel with the author's precise instructions for placing them in relation to the text and for keying explanations printed in the margins to particular illustrations or details. The woodcuts were highly influential and were re-used or copied for over a century; the woodblocks themselves survived in Germany up to the Second World War. The work opens with a full-page scene of an anatomical theatre showing the dissection of a female corpse in progress; Vesalius performed one of the earliest autopsies on a female body. The 14 muscle-men stand in landscapes that together form a panorama of the Euganean Hills near Padua, where Vesalius studied and wrote his magnum opus, and even the woodcut initials, cut specially for this edition, depict activities associated with the dissecting room.
Apart from the preliminary Epistola leaf, the other missing leaves in this copy comprise the single leaf which contains small woodcuts which were originally intended to be cut out and attached as overlays to the large skeletons on the two missing fold-out leaves. Adams V-603; Cushing VI.A.-1; Dibner, Heralds of Science 122; Garrison-Morton 375; Heirs of Hippocrates 281; Grolier Medicine 18A; NLM/Durling 4577; Norman 2137; PMM 71; Wellcome 6560.