Vesalius, Opera Omnia, 1725
Andreae Vesalii Invictissimi Caroli V. Imperatoris Medici Opera Omnia Anatomica & Chirurgica Cura Hermanni Boerhaave Medicinae, Botanices, Collegii Practici, & Chemiae in Academia Lugduno-Batava Professoris, & Bernhardi Siegfried Albini Anatomies & Chirurgiae in eadem Academia Professoris. Tomus Primus and Secundus. Lugduni Batavorum, Apud { Joannem du Vivie, et Joan. & Herm. Verbeek. } Bibliop. 1725.
Two folio volumes in full tigroid brown leather with gilt spines and board edges. Red and green labels on spines (green labels extensively chipped). Raised bands. Scattered scuffs on boards. Red page edges. Marbled end papers. Joints strong but hinges beginning to crack internally. Engraved title folding, trimmed into image, and ragged with some old tape repairs. Main title in red and black. Variable toning. Two folding plates with significant tears affecting images (one with old tape repair). Scattered smaller marginal tears of others. One plate in vol 1 trimmed slightly larger than rest of text block, with resultant fraying of its fore-edge. Scattered library stamps, including on some versos and image sides of a few plates (involving a few images). Green ribbon. Decorative capitals and tailpieces. Binding tight throughout.
Vol 1: Ffep, blank, half title, engraved title, title, * - ********2 , A – Ffff4, Gggg, rfep. With 68 plates (2 folding), 80 in-text figures, 5 marginal line figures.
Ffep, blank, half title, engraved title, title (38) 572, rfep. With 68 plates (2 folding), 80 in-text figures, 5 marginal line figures.
Vol 2: ffep, title, half title, Gggg3-5, Hhhh – Iiii4, Kkkk – Nnnn2, Oooo4, (), Pppp – Yyyy4, Zzzz, (), Zzzz(a), Zzzz2-4, Aaaaa – Mmmmmmm4, Nnnnnnn – Bbbbbbbb2, rfep. With 17 plates (11 folding).
Ffep, title, half title (4) 577 - 1156 (51 pages index) rfep. With 17 plates (11 folding).
Per Cushing, pg 133, volume 1 contains the complete text of the 1555 Fabrica as well as a life of Vesalius, engraved title from the 1543 edition of the Fabrica, half title of the Fabrica and index of its chapters, dedication to Charles V, letter to Oporinus, and portrait. Volume 2 contains the complete text of each of the following: Epitome of 1543, The China-root Epistle, Fallopius letter to Manna, Vesalius’ Examen of Fallopius, Cuneus’ Examen, and the Chirurgia magna.
G-M 8095: “Vesalius's collected works with the famous woodcuts reproduced as copperplate engravings by Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759). Notably Boerhaave and Albinus had this edition published because Vesalius's works still had practical value for physicians early in the 18th century before the application of microscopy to anatomy.”
Vesalius (1514-1564), was a Flemish physician and regarded as the father of modern anatomy. Per Heirs of Hippocrates (280): “Vesalius is a name known and revered by all students of medicine. In his short lifetime, this Brussels-born Fleming came to occupy one of the foremost places in the history of medicine, not only as the inaugurator of a real science of anatomy, but also as a founder, with Harvey later, of medical science based on fact rather than tradition. To have completed before his twenty-ninth year a task of the magnitude of the Fabrica (see No. 281), at a time when bodies for dissection were most difficult to obtain and legal authority difficult to resist, is a feat to which the literary history of the profession offers no parallel.” Also per Heirs (281): “It is often a matter of friendly contention among medical historians as to which is the "more important" book, Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica or Harvey's De motu cordis. It cannot be denied that the Fabrica is the most famous anatomical work ever published, to this day one of the most beautiful in existence, and the milestone in all medical history which definitely showed a break from old traditions. It cannot be emphasized too often that this was an epochal book. The beautiful woodcuts, executed under the supervision of Vesalius by the artist Jan Stephan van Calcar (1499-1546?), student of Titian, are famous for their beauty, accuracy, and lavishness of detail and number.”
Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a successor of Govert Bidloo and teacher of Albrecht von Haller. His name remains immortalized in the diagnosis Boerhaave’s syndrome (esophageal rupture due to vomiting), and his Aphorisms are considered a medical classic.
Bernhard Siegried Albinus (1697-1770) lectured on anatomy at Leyden. “He was the pioneer of a new epoch in human anatomy, an epoch during which all investigations, and especially those pertaining to osteology and myology, were carried out with the most perfect thoroughness and exactitude and with all the means then available. Anatomic representation, too, enters upon an epoch of high perfection during which the mere outward appearance, superficial investigations, or the mere copying of subjects observed prove insufficient.” (Choulant 276).
This 18th century edition of the complete works of Vesalius, given to the world by the giants Albinus and Boerhaave, brings together three names who are immortal in the history of medicine.
