Updated Census in USA of First Edition of Andreas Vesalius’ ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ of 1543

Stephen N. Joffe ,Verónica Buchanan

doi:10.3823/1622

Stephen N. Joffe , Verónica Buchanan

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3823/1622

Copy DOI

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to confirm the locations and find previously unreported sites in the United States of America (USA) of the First Edition (1543) of the “De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ authored by Andreas Vesalius. Contacts were made at institutions of higher learning, museums, libraries and an update of locations of the two previous studies by Cushing in 1943 and Horowitz and Collins in 1984. A total of 64 copies of the 1543 Fabrica were recorded in 47 Universities and Institutional libraries in the USA. Besides confirming their presence at the previously recorded sites, we have found 18 more copies in twelve additional facilities including further two copies with colored and tinted illustrations. The majority of locations recorded by Cushing seventy years ago and subsequently reported thirty later by Horowitz and Collins are still in their original collections. Location of first edition Vesalius in private collections were more difficult to locate and have reduced to six from at least ten since 1984 with mainly physician owners.

Highlights

Andreas Vesalius’s treatise, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, is considered the greatest work on anatomy ever produced
Results are presented as a geographical listing of those volumes held in the United States of America (USA)
The recipients include University of Chicago, Harvard University, New York Academy of Medicine, Yale University and University of Minnesota. It is the 500th year since Vesalius’ birth and many academic facilities and non-profit organizations are having symposia highlighting the importance of Vesalius to anatomy and modern day science

Summary

Introduction

Andreas Vesalius’s treatise, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, is considered the greatest work on anatomy ever produced. Vesalius anatomy was based on firsthand observation and he conducted demonstrations rather than using an assistant. Five years before he produced the treatise, Vesalius published, at the request of his students, six large illustrations, Tabulae Anatomicae Sex (1538), based on his dissections. It is widely believed that Calcar was responsible for some of the illustrations in this 1543 treatise –the three skeletons and in particular the muscleman sequence

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