VESALIUS, ANDREAS. 1514-1564.


De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel: Johannes Oporinus, August 1555. Folio (410 x 273 mm). Collation: a-z6 A-T6 V6(6 + fold-out sheet signed X, 6+1 signed X2) Y-Z6 aa6 bb6(5 + 1 fold-out sheet) cc-zz6 Aa8 Bb-Ee6. 441 leaves and 2 folding sheets. Roman and italic types, occasional use of Greek and Hebrew types, printed shoulder notes. Woodcut dedicatory title 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. Late 19th or early 20th century half vellum and paper covered boards, some light rubbing. Overall some light browning, some mostly marginal dampstaining, a few marginal tears, tiny burn hole in woodcut portrait, i3-n4 and Y1-bb5 with marginal worming, y2, K5, V6, X2 torn and repaired, folding plate X1 with loss of 1/3 of the page affecting woodcut illustration, folding plate bb6 with small portion missing affecting text. Provenance: Logan Clendening (bookplate); Clendening Medical Library, University of Kansas (bookplate). Second edition, especially significant because it includes the author's final additions and corrections. These include Vesalius's rejection of the Galenic teaching that there are pores in the ventricular septum of the heart. This anatomical fact was significant for Harvey's ultimate discovery of the circulation. This publication is "even more lavish than the first" (Heirs of Hippocrates) with the woodcut title recut (now with a previously naked person on the left dressed) and a new set of woodcut initials. It was printed on heavier paper with larger type (49 instead of 50 lines to the page). Adams V-605; Choulant-Frank, pp 181-82; Cushing VI.A.-3; Garrison-Morton 377; Durling 4579; Norman 2139; Osler 568; Waller 9901; Wellcome I, p 6562.