VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564)

Los 148
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1514540
Los 148 | VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564)
Schätzwert
£ 50 000 – 70 000
VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564)
De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, August 1555.
Second folio edition, establishing the corrected and revised authorial text, a publication 'even more lavish than the first' (Heirs of Hippocrates). On its first publication in 1543 (see previous lot), the Fabrica revolutionised the understanding and teaching of anatomy, dividing medical history into pre- and post-Vesalian eras. It 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). It is considered not only the most famous anatomical book ever published but the most beautiful, combining scientific exposition, art and typography to create a Renaissance masterpiece.

The present edition is the last to incorporate revisions by the author and is considered superior to the 1543 edition. Johann Oporinus, printer of the first as well as the present edition, used a larger type, had the ornamental initials recut to match the new type, and printed the work on a larger, heavier paper. The fine anatomical illustrations and the portrait of Vesalius were reprinted from the original 1543 blocks, which survived until the second World War at Munich. The pictorial title of Vesalius at a dissection was altered for this edition to show a clothed (previously naked) figure perching up on the left. Garrison-Morton, 377; Horblit 98 (1543 edition); Dibner 122; PMM 71; Choulant pp. 181ff; Heirs of Hippocrates 283.

Folio (431 x 277mm). Woodcut dedicatory frontispiece showing Vesalius lecturing from the dissection table, portrait of Vesalius, about 200 woodcut text illustrations, 23 full-page, two folding, last leaf with printer's device on verso, historiated initials (title lightly soiled and with a few small wormholes and lightly frayed corner, one folding plate with short repaired tear at fold, very occasional minor spot, occasional minor wormhole). 18th-century mottled calf, spine tooled and lettered in gilt, marbled edges (mottling worn, hinges and board edges worn, rehinged with new endleaves). Provenance: John Falconer, Jr (inscription dated 1849) – Sir John Bland-Sutton (1855-1936; presentation inscription to him as First President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland from his successor Sir Harold Stiles dated May 1921; gift from Bland-Sutton: ) – Royal Society of Medicine (bookplate recording the gift in October 1923).
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