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Andreas Vesalius, Epistola (Basel, 1546)

ABC’s of the life of medical students:

The decorative initials used in this edition of Vesalius’ correspondence are identical to 22 different initials originally printed in De fabrica (1543). Such “historiated initials” tell stories.  Little putti carry out the various tasks of a medical student, such as cleaning bones in river-water, performing a phlebotomy, inserting a catheter, articulating a skeleton, dissecting a decapitated head, or vivisecting a pig.

Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1555), 2d ed.

This book is without doubt the most handsome anatomical work of the 16th century. A dozen “muscle men” walk through its pages, removing skin and organs layer by layer, like discarding old clothes. Vesalius was fortunate to team up with Jan Stephan van Calcar, a world class artist. Even the human skeletons reveal an aesthetic appreciation of the human body. This book illustrates the convergence of art and anatomical study in the Renaissance.

The title page displays Vesalius conducting a public autopsy. Perhaps a vivisection of the dog or monkey will follow. At the top of the 1543 edition, the initials I-O stand for Johannes. The Johannes in question was Vesalius’ partner in producing the work, the artist Jan Stephan van Calcar, a student of Titian. Jan Stephan died shortly after the book was published and his contribution is not widely appreciated.

The title page of this 1555 edition of De fabrica resembles the 1543 edition but is less artistically executed. Significantly, the initials IO were removed.

Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543)

Best known work of early modern anatomy:

Vesalius was fortunate to team up with Jan Stephan van Calcar, a remarkable artist. Even the human skeletons reveal an aesthetic appreciation of the human body. The images of De fabrica are often regarded as Vesalius’ major contribution to Renaissance medicine. That the text of De fabrica was built around the illustrations of a student of Titian reveals the significance of the Renaissance convergence of art and anatomical illustration.

This book is without doubt the most handsome 16th-century anatomical work. The title page displays Vesalius conducting a public autopsy. Perhaps a vivisection of the dog or monkey will follow. At the top, the initials I-O stand for Johannes. The Johannes in question was Vesalius’ partner in producing the work, the artist Jan Stephan van Calcar, a student of Titian. Jan Stephan died shortly after the book was published and his contribution is not widely appreciated.

Vesalius was fortunate to team up with a world class artist. Even the human skeletons reveal an aesthetic appreciation of the human body.

In contrast to Roman-era taboos prohibiting physical contact with the dead, this series of works, from Mondino to Vesalius, represents a new aesthetic toward the human body. When Melanchthon was reforming the curriculum of the universities founded by the Lutherans during the Reformation, he settled upon the study of Vesalius as the most suitable replacement for traditional undergraduate study of Aristotle. Human anatomy took its place in the common core.

The title page of the second edition, published in 1555 and on display at Headington Hall, resembles the first edition but is less artistically executed. Significantly, the initials IO were removed.

Charles Estienne, De dissectione partium corporis humani (Paris, 1545)

Clip art with woodblocks:

Estienne obtained a number of woodblocks from an obscure artist. To show anatomical detail, he cut little rectangles out of the art woodblocks and substituted his own diagrammatic drawings. If you look closely, you can see the white outlines of the rectangular diagram, inset within the larger art woodblock.

Medieval human dissection manual:

Written in 1316 by a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, the
Mondino dei Luzzi, Anothomia (Venice, 1507)

Anatomy of Mondino was the most widely-used manual for human dissection in the middle ages. To the modern eye, the most striking thing about this early edition is the lack of illustrations.

In the Middle Ages, universities revived the practice of human dissection, which had been prohibited by the Romans due to ethical concerns and taboos about contact with the dead. A profound cultural shift was occurring, which led to an early modern convergence between art and anatomy. 

Written in 1316 by a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, the Anatomy of Mondino was the most widely-used manual for human dissection in the middle ages. To the modern eye, the most striking thing about this early edition is the lack of illustrations. This 1507 edition reproduces the nature of the manuscript tradition, before the advent of printing.

Medieval medical pedagogy featured lectures on ancient texts, although students in most universities by 1400 attended dissections which illustrated the lectures. Human cadavers were obtained after criminal executions. Very practically for an age without adequate preservatives, Mondino’s method began with the abdomen (subject to most rapid decay) and worked outward. Mondino advocated the study of human anatomy not merely on utilitarian grounds as a prerequisite for medicine, physiology, or law, but also as a worthy and noble endeavor in itself.

Mondino dei Luzzi, Anatomia (Marburg, 1541), ed. Johann Dryander

Art and anatomy converge in an illustrated manual:

These human figures are more than utilitarian: walking against a real background, posed as if revealing to our eyes the unseen beauty and wonder of human anatomy; they also reflect an increasingly artistic approach to the human body.

The dissection manual of Mondino was printed with many illustrations in the commentary on Mondino published in 1521 by Berengario da Carpi of Bologna. Those illustrations are reprinted in this edition. The Printing Revolution made possible an increased use of visual representations.