De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
Contains digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Book
Title: De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
Classmark: Health Sciences Historical Collection SC.4
Creator(s): Vesalius, Andreas (1514-1564)
Additional creator(s): Ash, John (1723-1798) (Former owner); Barnes, Robert (1604) (Former owner)
Publisher: Ex officina I. Oporini
Publication city: Basileae
Date(s): 1543
Language: Latin
Size and medium: [x], 659, 37 unnumbered pages
Manifest: https://iiif.library.leeds.ac.uk/presentation/cc/hxrs8n1f
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/168733
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991010350829705181
Description
Engraved title-page, mended and mounted. Lacks pp.377/78, 381/2 and portrait facing p.1. Conforms with the description on p.79 of Cushing's Bio-bibliography of Andreas Vesalius.
Indexed in: The Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius : a worldwide descriptive census, edited by Daniel Margocsy, Mark Somos, Stephen N. Joffe,
Additional description
Engraved title-page, mended and mounted. Lacks pp.377/78, 381/2 and portrait facing p.1. Conforms with the description on p.79 of Cushing's Bio-bibliography of Andreas Vesalius. Armorial bookplate of John Ash. MS. annotations (in Latin) in text
Features
Bindings
Leeds University Libraries copy at Health Sciences Historical Collection SC.4: modern (20th century) full brown calf/goatskin, gold tooled on spine: University Library Leeds.
Provenance
Leeds University Libraries copy at Health Sciences Historical Collection SC.4: Eighteenth-century armorial bookplate of John Ash [i.e. John Ash (1723-1798), physician] on front pastedown, see Franks Bequest 780. Seventeenth-century MS. annotation in French on front pastedown: Il y aussi un Flamant nomme Jean Calcar qui imita le Titien c’est de luy les figures d’art qui sont dans Versale voyez entretiens sur les vies des pientres per Felibien [There is also a Flemish man named Jean Calcar (i.e.: Jan Steven van Calcar c. 1499–1546, painter) who imitated Titian, it is from him that the artistic figures in Vesalius are taken, see the discussions in On the lives of painters by Felibien]. This refers to Félibien, André, Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouuvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes (A Paris: Chez Pierre Le Petit, imprimeur & librarie ordinaire du roy, ruë S. Iacques, à la Croix d'Or MDCLXVI-MDCLXXII [1666-1672]). Both the Ash bookplate and annotation in French have been cut out from an earlier pastedown or flyleaf and pasted on during re-binding. MS. inscription in Latin, partially obliterated, on top of page 3 in a small hand: Opera Vesalii … Fabrica … Roberti Barnes Medici [i.e. Robert Barnes (d.1604), Fellow of Merton College, Oxford]. Numerous MS. annotations in Latin in margins, possibly by Ash or an earlier former owner, updating Vesalius and referencing other anatomical works such as Galen and Laurentius, particularly in book v and vi, including two drawings of a spleen on page 512, see The Fabrica of Andreas Vesalius : a worldwide descriptive census (Brill, 2018).
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.
On our website
Online exhibition: De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543
Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica ("On the Fabric of the Human Body") is second to none as a printed medical book for its elegant typography and beautiful illustrations.. One of the treasures of Special Collections in Leeds University Library.