Beschreibung:

VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564). De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, August 1555.
VESALIUS, Andreas (1514-1564). De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, August 1555. 2 o (377 x 253 mm). Collation : a-z 6 A-T 6 V 6 (6 + fold-out sheet signed X, 6+1 signed X2) Y-Z 6 aa 6 bb 6 (5 + 1 fold-out sheet) cc-zz 6 Aa 8 Bb-Ee 6 . 441 leaves and 2 folding sheets. Roman and italic types, occasional use of Greek and Hebrew types, printed shoulder notes. Woodcut dedicatory frontipiece showing Vesalius lecturing from the dissection table, portrait of Vesalius, about 200 woodcut text illustrations, 23 full-page, and two folding plates; numerous historiated initials. (Title with some pale marginal darkening and two inscriptions skillfully removed.) 17th-century sprinkled calf, gilt spine (some wear at edges, some peeling on front cover). Provenance : Royal College and Episcopal Seminary, Strassburg (17th-century inscription on title); two Strassburg library stamps on verso of title; A.C. Klebs (inkstamp); acquired from Herbert Reichner, 1962. Third edition, and SECOND FOLIO EDITION, establishing the corrected and revised authorial text, a publication "even more lavish than the first" ( Heirs of Hippocrates ). It was printed on heavier paper with larger type (49 instead of 50 lines to the page), a new set of woodcut initials was cut, and the famous frontispiece of an anatomy was recut, now with a clothed (previously naked) figure perching on the left. The highly influential, elegant and scientific anatomical illustrations and portrait of Vesalius are printed from the original 1543 blocks. The full-page woodcuts feature 3 skeletal figures and 14 écorché figures depicting the muscles; there are 5 large diagrams of the circulatory and nervous systems, 25 middle-size woodcuts, 10 depicting the abdomen, 2 the thorax, and 13 the skull and brain, and numerous smaller figures of anatomical details and organs. "The impression of the woodcuts is often clearer, and more beautiful than in the previous editions; some of the figures have been somewhat improved upon in the cutting and in the lettering. The presswork is more splendid; the fancy initials throughout are larger and more beautiful and also adorned with drawings different from those in the first edition. This second [folio] edition therefore has advantages over the first on account of additions in the text and in the illustrations and particularly on account of its more splendid makeup" (Choulant-Frank, p.181-182). Adams V-605; Cushing VI.A.-3; Garrison-Morton-Norman 377; NLM/Durling 4579; Norman 2139; Osler 568; Waller 9901; Wellcome 6562.