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De humani corporis fabrica

Lot 75
02.02.2024 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 2 228 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1129693
Lot 75 | De humani corporis fabrica
Estimate value
$ 800 000 – 1 200 000
VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564). De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, August 1555.


· Andreas Vesalius’s own, heavily annotated copy of the second edition of his magnum opus, the greatest anatomical atlas of the Renaissance and a masterpiece of medical science, pedagogy, and typographical design

· A remarkable discovery which offers a first-hand glimpse into the mind of a master at work at the very process of scientific discovery, refining the expression of both his own and others' discoveries

· The unique copy of an unrealized third edition; essentially the author’s last words on the book which “endeavored to do all that Galen had done and to do it better … no other work of the sixteenth century equals it, although many share its spirit of anatomical inquiry” (PMM)

· An exceptional survival of significant manuscript notes by Andreas Vesalius, very little of whose autograph material is extant


Folio (424 x 282mm). Woodcut dedicatory frontispiece, portrait of Vesalius, woodcut illustrations and diagrams throughout including full-page anatomical illustrations, 2 double-page images of the nervous system, and large historiated initials depicting medical themes. Lacking gatherings Bb-Ee containing the errata, index, register, colophon, and printer’s device, possibly as issued. (Frontispiece heavily chipped and laid down, lacking bifolium mm3.4, outer margins reinforced and strengthened on almost all leaves, especially at front, a few larger repairs affecting text without loss, a few restored areas in blank margins, occasional dustsoiling and a bit of worming in lower blank margin of some leaves, last gathering with outer margins renewed sometimes just touching printed shoulder notes, x2 trimmed and laid down.) Modern stiff vellum (with remains of title label and shelfmark on spine).

PROVENANCE:
Andreas Vesalius (extensive marginal annotations throughout) – a few later, possibly 18th-century annotations – remains of later ink stamp on p. 181 – acquired by the present owner at auction (Ketterer Kunst Doerling, Hamburg, 21 May 2007, lot 21).

EXHIBITED:
“Vesalius at 500,” Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, 2014, no. 25.

REFERENCES:
Garrison-Morton 377; Horblit 98 (1543 edition); Dibner 122; PMM 71 (first edition); Heirs of Hippocrates 283; Adams V-605; Cushing VI.A.-3; NLM/Durling 4579; Norman 2139. Margocsy, Somos & Joffe. The Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius: A Worldwide Descriptive Census. This copy is no. II.18.

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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