Title Page and Dedication for the "Compendiosa totius Anatomiae delineatio"

Andreas Vesalius|Thomas Geminus

1545 · Engraving and letterpress · Drawings and Prints

Title and dedication page (bound together) of the anatomy book published by Thomas Geminus in London in 1545. The book reproduced the anatomical plates from Andreas Vesalius' "De humani corporis fabrica", combined with the text of the "Epitome" by the same author, both published in 1543. The work counts as one of the first examples of the use of engraving in England. The ony other example of engravings predating the "Compendiosa" are found in "The Birth of Mankind, otherwise named the Woman’s Book", an English version of Eucharius Rösslin’s "Der schwangern Frauwen und Hebammen Rosengarten" of 1513, published first by Richard Jonas in 1540, and in a new version by Thomas Raynalde in 1545. Geminus is sometimes associated with these publications, but the inferior quality of the engraved illustrations speaks against this attribution.

Artist

Andreas Vesalius|Thomas Geminus

Date

1545

Medium

Engraving and letterpress

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Philip Hofer, 1937