.jpg?w=1)
Details
VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-64), editor -- Johannes GUINTERIUS, of Andernach (1505-74). Institutionum anatomicarum secundum Galeni sententiam ad candidatos medicinae libri quatuor. Venice: D. Bernardinus, 1538.
16o (108 x 77mm). Collation: +8 ++8; A-O8 (+1r title, +1v blank, +2r-4r editor's dedication to Johannes Armenterianus, +4v blank, +5r-++4r index, ++4v errata, ++5-++8 blank; A1r-5v author's dedication to Nicolas Quelain, A6r text, O1r Giorgio Valla's De humani corporis partibus). 128 leaves. Roman, italic and Greek types. Printer's woodcut device, 6 ornamental woodcut initials. (Faint dampstains in lower margins and at end, last leaf strengthened in margins.) Contemporary limp vellum, evidence of four pairs of ties (rubbed, early mend to one hole on back cover); modern black morocco box.
Provenance: Andreas Vesalius, with AUTOGRAPH REVISIONS AND CORRECTIONS in preparation for a new edition (occasionally cropped).
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION by Vesalius of this anatomical treatise by Johann Guenther of Andernach. Guenther taught anatomy at Paris from 1533 to 1538, during which period (1533-36) Vesalius was one of his students. A convinced Galenist, Guenther lectured from the podium while an assistant performed the actual dissection for the purpose of illustrating Galen's doctrine. The present treatise was written by Guenther as a dissection manual for the use of his students. First published in Paris in 1536 and reprinted in Basel the same year (on the order of the editions, see J.C.Trent, "The editio princeps of Guenther's Institutiones anatomicae" Bulletin of the History of Medicine 18, 1945), the work was subsequently reprinted in separate sequences of editions by Giunio Paolo Crasso (see lot 107) and Vesalius.
Although Guenther himself seldom, if ever, participated directly in dissections, he permitted his students to do so, and in the Institutiones anatomicae he credited Vesalius with a discovery concerning the spermatic ducts -- the first published reference to the young Vesalius. "These spermatic vessels, which are attached to the back by slender fibres, are extended downward, and as they approach the iliac region arteries are joined to them which arise very differently than the veins from the vena cava. I believe that no anatomist hitherto has mentioned this, let alone noticed it. Recently we discovered them after long investigation of the parts and through the skill of Andreas Vesalius, son of the Emperor's apothecary -- a young man, by Hercules, of great promise, possessing an extraordinary knowledge of medicine, learned in both languages, and very skilled in dissection of bodies" (tr. O'Malley, pp.55-56). Reflecting traditional practice in an age when cadavers were not readily available and refrigeration was unknown, Guenther advocated dissecting the perishable internal organs first and then the other parts of the body, an order from which Vesalius was later to dissent in De humani corporis fabrica.
Vesalius' redaction of Guenther's treatise was one of his earlier published works, following the publication of his thesis, Paraphrasis in nonum librum Rhazae (Louvain 1537, reprinted Basel 1537), and his Tabulae anatomicae (Venice 1538). In the dedication to Johannes Armenterianus, professor of medicine at Louvain, Vesalius explained that his objective was to present Guenther's work in a corrected and authoritative form. Expressing admiration for the merits of his teacher, he attributed the errors to the haste with which the text had originally been printed, although he elsewhere criticized Guenther's anatomical demonstrations as having little value. "Probably he saw in his revision a fairly simple method of calling attention to himself and, within the framework of Guinter's treatise, of indicating his anatomical discoveries or revisions which were as yet insufficient to justify a separate work; additionally, his revised version was superior as a dissection manual to Guinter's original edition or, indeed, to anything else that was available" (O'Malley, p.94).
Vesalius' revised and augmented version of Guenther's Institutiones anatomicae was first published in Venice in 1538 and was subsequently reprinted several times, in Venice [1540?], Padua 1550, Wittenberg 1585, and Wittenberg 1613 (Cushing, p.47, lists two other editions, Padua 1558 and Wittenberg 1616, for which no copies can be located). While a copy of the first edition was still in sheets, unbound, Vesalius entered further corrections and annotations in preparation for a new edition. His changes not only rectify typographical errors and mistakes in layout (e.g. the incorrect placement of shoulder notes), but they also introduce significant modifications to the text, including revisions, deletions, and additions. In Book IV entire paragraphs of text are cancelled (M1r, M3r-v), and in Book II instructions are given for the placement of a figure (F8v). Opposite a point (H2v) where he had already inserted the independent observation that, contrary to Galen, the cardiac systole is synchronous with the arterial pulse, Vesalius added this note, with his own exclamation mark: "An cordi et arteriis idem pulsus!" Except for a few corrections of typographical errors, such as any editor could make intuitively, THESE CHANGES WERE NOT TAKEN UP IN ANY KNOWN SUBSEQUENT EDITION OF THE VESALIAN REDACTION OF GUINTERIUS. THEY REPRESENT UNPUBLISHED SECOND THOUGHTS AND NEW OBSERVATIONS BY VESALIUS.
The present copy consists of these annotated sheets as they were bound subsequently, but at a very early date. The way in which some notes continue across the gutter indicates that they were written before binding, and the slight cropping of some of the marginalia is due to the binder's trimming of the textblock. AUTOGRAPHS BY VESALIUS ARE EXTREMELY RARE. Two books are known with his signature on the title page, one at the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, the other in the Waller Collection at Uppsala University Library (O'Malley, pl.10 and p.61), and his signature occurred in a Liber amicorum sold by Stargardt several years ago. Fewer than 10 autograph letters by Vesalius are known (see O'Malley and Andr Vsale: Exprimentation et enseignement de l'anatomie au XVIe sicle , Brussels 1993, which includes facsimiles). Comparison of the present volume with published facsimiles of Vesalius' letters confirm that the annotations are in his hand.
THIS VOLUME IS THE ONLY KNOWN BOOK WITH MANUSCRIPT NOTES BY VESALIUS. The great rarity of Vesalius manuscripts is due in large part to the fact that when he joined the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V after the publication of his Fabrica (lot 213) and Epitome, Vesalius burned his early books and papers. As he himself recounted in the Epistle on the China Root (lot 214), published in 1546, "... my Annotations ... a complete paraphrase of the ten books of Rhazes ... the outline for a book on medical prescriptions ... they were all destroyed by me one day together with all of Galen's books I had used in teaching anatomy and in which, in the usual way, I had written various annotations ... I burned everything with the idea that in the future I should write nothing more. However, I have regretted it several times, and I am sorry that I did not allow myself to be dissuaded by my friends who were present" (tr. O'Malley, p.223). The present volume presumably strayed from Vesalius' library before the conflagration or may be the unique survivor of it. No more direct or precious witness to the great anatomist's thinking and writing is extant. Cushing III.-1; Osler 582; Norman 2135. Not in Adams, BM/STC German, NLM/Durling, Waller, Wellcome.
Literature:
J. Baerten, "Les lettres autographes d'Andr Vsale et son immatriculation au Collge de Chteau Louvain," Current Problems in History of Medicine (Basel/New York: Karger, 1966), pp. 9-17.
H. Elkhadem, et al. Andr Vsale: Exprimentation et enseignement de l'anatomie au XVIe sicle (Brussels: Bibliothque royale, 1993), nos. 13, 14, 18.
J. Oeschger, Thirty Letters to and from Basle, 1504-1940 (Basel 1960), no. 8.
J.C. Tihon, "Deux lettres indites d'Andr Vsale," Archives et Bibliothques de Belgique 38, 1957, pp. 197-204.
16
Provenance: Andreas Vesalius, with AUTOGRAPH REVISIONS AND CORRECTIONS in preparation for a new edition (occasionally cropped).
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION by Vesalius of this anatomical treatise by Johann Guenther of Andernach. Guenther taught anatomy at Paris from 1533 to 1538, during which period (1533-36) Vesalius was one of his students. A convinced Galenist, Guenther lectured from the podium while an assistant performed the actual dissection for the purpose of illustrating Galen's doctrine. The present treatise was written by Guenther as a dissection manual for the use of his students. First published in Paris in 1536 and reprinted in Basel the same year (on the order of the editions, see J.C.Trent, "The editio princeps of Guenther's Institutiones anatomicae" Bulletin of the History of Medicine 18, 1945), the work was subsequently reprinted in separate sequences of editions by Giunio Paolo Crasso (see lot 107) and Vesalius.
Although Guenther himself seldom, if ever, participated directly in dissections, he permitted his students to do so, and in the Institutiones anatomicae he credited Vesalius with a discovery concerning the spermatic ducts -- the first published reference to the young Vesalius. "These spermatic vessels, which are attached to the back by slender fibres, are extended downward, and as they approach the iliac region arteries are joined to them which arise very differently than the veins from the vena cava. I believe that no anatomist hitherto has mentioned this, let alone noticed it. Recently we discovered them after long investigation of the parts and through the skill of Andreas Vesalius, son of the Emperor's apothecary -- a young man, by Hercules, of great promise, possessing an extraordinary knowledge of medicine, learned in both languages, and very skilled in dissection of bodies" (tr. O'Malley, pp.55-56). Reflecting traditional practice in an age when cadavers were not readily available and refrigeration was unknown, Guenther advocated dissecting the perishable internal organs first and then the other parts of the body, an order from which Vesalius was later to dissent in De humani corporis fabrica.
Vesalius' redaction of Guenther's treatise was one of his earlier published works, following the publication of his thesis, Paraphrasis in nonum librum Rhazae (Louvain 1537, reprinted Basel 1537), and his Tabulae anatomicae (Venice 1538). In the dedication to Johannes Armenterianus, professor of medicine at Louvain, Vesalius explained that his objective was to present Guenther's work in a corrected and authoritative form. Expressing admiration for the merits of his teacher, he attributed the errors to the haste with which the text had originally been printed, although he elsewhere criticized Guenther's anatomical demonstrations as having little value. "Probably he saw in his revision a fairly simple method of calling attention to himself and, within the framework of Guinter's treatise, of indicating his anatomical discoveries or revisions which were as yet insufficient to justify a separate work; additionally, his revised version was superior as a dissection manual to Guinter's original edition or, indeed, to anything else that was available" (O'Malley, p.94).
Vesalius' revised and augmented version of Guenther's Institutiones anatomicae was first published in Venice in 1538 and was subsequently reprinted several times, in Venice [1540?], Padua 1550, Wittenberg 1585, and Wittenberg 1613 (Cushing, p.47, lists two other editions, Padua 1558 and Wittenberg 1616, for which no copies can be located). While a copy of the first edition was still in sheets, unbound, Vesalius entered further corrections and annotations in preparation for a new edition. His changes not only rectify typographical errors and mistakes in layout (e.g. the incorrect placement of shoulder notes), but they also introduce significant modifications to the text, including revisions, deletions, and additions. In Book IV entire paragraphs of text are cancelled (M1r, M3r-v), and in Book II instructions are given for the placement of a figure (F8v). Opposite a point (H2v) where he had already inserted the independent observation that, contrary to Galen, the cardiac systole is synchronous with the arterial pulse, Vesalius added this note, with his own exclamation mark: "An cordi et arteriis idem pulsus!" Except for a few corrections of typographical errors, such as any editor could make intuitively, THESE CHANGES WERE NOT TAKEN UP IN ANY KNOWN SUBSEQUENT EDITION OF THE VESALIAN REDACTION OF GUINTERIUS. THEY REPRESENT UNPUBLISHED SECOND THOUGHTS AND NEW OBSERVATIONS BY VESALIUS.
The present copy consists of these annotated sheets as they were bound subsequently, but at a very early date. The way in which some notes continue across the gutter indicates that they were written before binding, and the slight cropping of some of the marginalia is due to the binder's trimming of the textblock. AUTOGRAPHS BY VESALIUS ARE EXTREMELY RARE. Two books are known with his signature on the title page, one at the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, the other in the Waller Collection at Uppsala University Library (O'Malley, pl.10 and p.61), and his signature occurred in a Liber amicorum sold by Stargardt several years ago. Fewer than 10 autograph letters by Vesalius are known (see O'Malley and Andr Vsale: Exprimentation et enseignement de l'anatomie au XVI
THIS VOLUME IS THE ONLY KNOWN BOOK WITH MANUSCRIPT NOTES BY VESALIUS. The great rarity of Vesalius manuscripts is due in large part to the fact that when he joined the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V after the publication of his Fabrica (lot 213) and Epitome, Vesalius burned his early books and papers. As he himself recounted in the Epistle on the China Root (lot 214), published in 1546, "... my Annotations ... a complete paraphrase of the ten books of Rhazes ... the outline for a book on medical prescriptions ... they were all destroyed by me one day together with all of Galen's books I had used in teaching anatomy and in which, in the usual way, I had written various annotations ... I burned everything with the idea that in the future I should write nothing more. However, I have regretted it several times, and I am sorry that I did not allow myself to be dissuaded by my friends who were present" (tr. O'Malley, p.223). The present volume presumably strayed from Vesalius' library before the conflagration or may be the unique survivor of it. No more direct or precious witness to the great anatomist's thinking and writing is extant. Cushing III.-1; Osler 582; Norman 2135. Not in Adams, BM/STC German, NLM/Durling, Waller, Wellcome.
Literature:
J. Baerten, "Les lettres autographes d'Andr Vsale et son immatriculation au Collge de Chteau Louvain," Current Problems in History of Medicine (Basel/New York: Karger, 1966), pp. 9-17.
H. Elkhadem, et al. Andr Vsale: Exprimentation et enseignement de l'anatomie au XVI
J. Oeschger, Thirty Letters to and from Basle, 1504-1940 (Basel 1960), no. 8.
J.C. Tihon, "Deux lettres indites d'Andr Vsale," Archives et Bibliothques de Belgique 38, 1957, pp. 197-204.