VESALIUS, ANDREAS. 1514-1564.


Opera omnia. Anatomica & chirurgica. Edited by Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738) and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770). Leyden: Johannes du Vivie, Johannes and Herman Verbeek, 1725. 2 volumes. Folio (393 x 254 mm). Half-title, titles to each part in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved portrait, engraved title and 79 (of 82? see below) full-page plates, including 8 folding, and c. 38 text illustrations of human anatomy, all engraved by Jan Wandelaar, numerous woodcut text diagrams, ornamental initials and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, joints and corners repaired. Some rubbing and light wear to edges. Engraved title trimmed closely slightly affecting image, some light staining at beginning and end of each volume, a few minor tears. Provenance: Aberdeen, Medico-Chirugical Society (early inscription on title and old ink stamp "Med. Chir. Soc." in a few other places). ONLY COLLECTED EDITION OF VESALIUS'S WORKS. Edited by Hermann Boerhaave, an influential 18th-century physician, who was also interested in historic and contemporary theories of medicine. He collaborated with his younger colleague, the anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus. This collected edition includes De humani corporis fabrica in volume one and the Epitome, the China-root Letter, Vesalius's response to the Anatomical Observations of Gabriele Falloppio, and the Chirurgia magna, attributed to Vesalius in volume two. "This elaborate edition of Vesalius was put out without regard for expense. The topography is excellent and the plates skillfully engraved. The majority are copper plates but a few of the smaller are wood-blocks" (Cushing). It is probable that this is the first issue of the book and that plates 76a-c were only inserted in the second issue. As indicated by Cushing (and noted in descriptions of other copies) only 12 plates are found in volume 2, which is the case here. Cushing VI.D.-8; G.A. Lindeboom, Bibliographia Boerhaaviana (Leiden 1959) 554; Norman 2143.