Huntington Adds a Rare Anatomy Book

Jan Stephan van Calcar, frontispiece to Andreas Vesalius' De human corporis fabrica, 1543. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

The Huntington's Verso blog reports that the library has acquired a prime copy of Andreas Vesalius' De human corporis fabrica, the foundational anatomy book of Western medicine. You might think that the Huntington would have already had a copy, and you'd be right. However, its longtime copy is in poor condition due to a previous owner's misguided conservation attempt. 

The new Vesalius was formerly in the collection of the Los Angeles County Medical Association (also known as the "other LACMA"). It joins a group of rare medical books from the association's collection that were donated to the Huntington in the 1990s. Ironically the Vesalius was not included because the Huntington already had its compromised copy. Instead the association's copy was auctioned. The Huntington recently managed to buy it from a bookseller thanks to the support of a group of area physicians and bibliophiles.

Vesalius based his anatomy on dissections of cadavers of executed criminals. The 1543 book, with woodcut illustrations assigned to artists in Titian's circle, made obsolete the anatomy of Galen, which had been based on dissections of Barbary apes and dogs.

Unknown artist, skeleton figure from Vesalius "Fabrica," 1543

To most modern viewers, the book's most striking feature is the jaunty, lifelike poses of the skeletons and écorches. They must have been intended as allegories of mortality. Nevertheless, the accuracy of the illustrations indicate that the woodcut artists worked from dissections rather than notes and sketches.

Binding of Vesalius "Fabrica"

The new Vesalius is bound in a leaf from a medieval antiphonal. Sitting on a shelf, the book shows musical notation rather than its title.