VESALIUS, ANDREAS. 1514-1564.


De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, June 1543. Folio (404 x 291 mm). Collation: *6; A-Z6 a-l6 m6(2+1 + fold-out sheet, both signed m3) n-o6 p4(3 + fold-out sheet signed p4) q-z6 Aa-Ll6 Mm8. 355 leaves and two folding sheets. Roman and italic types, occasional use of Greek and Hebrew types, printed shoulder notes. Woodcut pictorial title, author portrait, and printer's device; 7 large, 186 mid-sized, and 22 small woodcut initials; more than 200 woodcut illustrations, including 3 full-page skeletons, 14 full-page muscle-men, 5 large diagrams of veins and nerves, 10 mid-sized views of the abdomen, 2 mid-sized views of the thorax, 13 mid-sized views of the skull and brain, and numerous smaller views of bones, organs and anatomical parts. Late 19th-century vellum-backed boards, sides from an illuminated antiphonal leaf, some minor rubbing and staining. Title, colophon leaf and a few other leaves reinforced along inner margin, edges strengthened on verso, some light darkening, portrait laid down with loss to blank margins, some light marginal dampstaining, heavier at beginning, b6 with small paper flaw affecting a few letters, a few short marginal tears, folding plates m3 and p4 torn and repaired with loss to blank margin.Provenance: Achilles Pirmin Gasser (1505-1577), Augsburg physician and astrologer (his signature and notes dated 24 October 1543 on the title page: "Sum Achillis Pyrm[ini] Gassari Lindauiensis / E Noriberga Feldkirchium 24 Octobris post natum sal=uatorem 1543 anno pro quinque florenis allatus" ("I belong to Achilles Pirmin Gasser from Lindau / From Nurnberg brought to Feldkirchen on the 24 October after the birth / of the Savior in the year 1543 for the price of 5 florins"), his initials on Kk2, and his initials and astrological drawing on the colophon leaf); Jeremias Martius (1537- c.1585), also an Augsburg physician and translator (presentation inscription dated 25 December 1566, from his friend Achilles Gasser, on second to last leaf, Mm 7: "Achilles P[irminus] Gasserus L[indauiensis] medicine doctor, libro hocce / amicitiae ergo donabat Dn. Hieremiam Martium / illustris reipublicae Augsburgensis physicum doctorem / 25 die Septembris anno d[omi]ni 1566" ("Achilles Pirmin Gasser from Lindau, doctor of medicine, has gifted this / book out of friendship to master Jeremias Martius, the physician of the / famous republic of Augsburg, on 25 December in the year of the Lord 1566"); unidentified armorial stamp on verso of title, *3 verso, and second to last leaf; Caironi Agostino, Milan (1820-1907) painter and collector (ink stamp on title, dated "1873"); Henry H. Donaldson (his calling card on front pastedown, and his blindstamp on front free endpaper); Pittsburgh, University, Falk Library of the Health Sciences. FIRST EDITION, AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY FROM THE LIBRARY OF VESALIUS'S FRIEND, THE AUGSBURG PHYSICIAN ACHILLES PIRMIN GASSER, AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE ACCURATE STUDY OF HUMAN ANATOMY."Published when the author was only 29 years old, the Fabrica revolutionized not only the science of anatomy but how it was taught. Throughout this encyclopedic work on the structure and workings of the human body, Vesalius provided a fuller and more detailed description of the human anatomy than any of his predecessors, correcting errors in the traditional anatomical teachings of Galen. Even more epochal than his criticism of Galen and other ... authorities was Vesalius's assertion that the dissection of cadavers must be performed by the physician himself. As revolutionary as the contents of the Fabrica and the anatomical discoveries which it published, was its unprecedented blending of scientific exposition, art and typography" (Garrison-Morton). ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPIES IN EXISTENCE. Achilles Pirmin Gasser, a close friend of Vesalius, was born at Lindau, on 3 November 1505, studied at Wittenberg, Vienna, and Montpellier, and became M.D. at Avignon in 1528. Gasser later practiced at Feldkirchen and Augsburg. He was a physician, astrologer and notable German humanist scholar. Gasser contributed to Sebastian Muenster's Cosmographia, taught Rheticus and was an early supporter of Copernicus. Gasser meet Vesalius in Augsburg. Vesalius was the Court physician to Charles V, a position he held since 1544 and stayed numerous times in Augsburg, where he befriended Gasser. They shared the conviction that a physician could learn much from performing postmortem examinations on their deceased patients. In 1557 Vesalius wrote to Gasser regarding his patient Leonhard Welser, who Vesalius had diagnosed with a pulsating tumor in the region of the vertebrae: "I have received your [letter], most eminent and friendly Master Achilles, in which you describe the case of the later Master Leonard as it was carefully observed by you at autopsy...." Gasser's autopsy report confirmed Vesalius's original diagnosis. Gasser purchased the present copy on 24 October 1543 in Nuremberg, just a month after its publication, for "5 florin," and was given a copy of the second edition by Vesalius on May 1, 1557. Gasser's library and his copy of the second edition was at the Bibliotheca Palatina in Heidelberg in 1581; the library was taken as war booty in 1622 and was donated to Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) in 1623 where the library still remains. (See Burmeister II/150). WITH: a mezzotint portrait of Gasser by Johann Jakob Haid (1704-1767). Adams V-603; Choulant-Frank, pp 178-80; Cushing VI.A.-1; Dibner Heralds of Science 122; Garrison-Morton 375; Grolier/Horblit 98; Grolier Medicine 18A; Durling 4577; Norman 2137; PMM 71; Stillwell Science 710; See Burmeister, Achille Pirmin Gasser 1505-1577. Arzt und Naturforscher, Historiker und Humanist. 3 volumes (included with this lot). Wiesbaden 1970-1975.