Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis Icones Anatomicae.

VESALIUS, Andreas; Illustrated by Jan Stephan van Calcar.

$6,000.00

Item Number: 147205

New York and Munich: Printed by the Bremer Presse for the New York Academy of Medicine and the University of Munich, 1934.

The Bremer Press edition and final edition of the Fabrica and Epitome, printed from the original Vesalian woodblocks which were subsequently destroyed in the bombing of Munich in 1943. Folio, original publisher’s half pigskin over cloth with gilt titles to the front panel, illustrated with two woodcut title-pages by Jos. Lehnacker, leaf with woodcut portrait of the author, 82 plate leaves with a total of 286 woodcut illustrations, 10 heliotype plates (of which 2 mounted as fold-outs), 8 leaves of index, 5 blank leaves, 15 half-title or title leaves, 2 text leaves. Limited edition, one of 615 copies of a total edition of 725, this is number 605. In near fine condition.

Published nearly 400 years after the first edition, the present volume is the final edition of the Fabrica and Epitome printed from the original Vesalian woodblocks, which were subsequently destroyed in the bombing of Munich in 1943. Because of the remarkable durability of woodblocks and the superb craftsmanship of the Bremer Press, the impressions here in this last original edition are probably finer darker and clearer than the original 1543 and 1555 editions of the Fabrica. It stands alone as the foremost production of a scientific book by a modern press. The edition was limited to 615 numbered copies with text and 110 others without text. "When in 1932 Dr. S. W. Lambert of New York became interested in making a study of the capital initials, it was suggested by the late Leonard L. Mackall that a renewed search might be made for the wood-blocks in the Munich Library. Though these initial blocks were not found, the search unexpectedly disclosed the full-page blocks engraved for the Epitome which, because of their large size, had been separately stored. At the request of the New York Academy of Medicine, permission was given by the Munich authorities to have prints struck off from all of the original blocks that had so far come to light for the purposes of an Atlas to be issued by Dr. Willy Wiegand at the celebrated Bremer Presse at Munich. This de luxe publication, printed on paper 'specially made from the best hempen fibres,' possibly serves to overemphasize the part played by Jan Stephan van Calcar and to minimize that of Vesalius, though to be sure the colophon on this occasion, were there one, should have read 'sumptibus Academics Medicince Nova'Eboracensis' rather than 'sumptibus Stephani Calcarensis.' From the estimated 277 original wood-blocks, only 50 were missing, including the portrait which has been reproduced in facsimile. For ease of comparison, the two frontispieces from the 1543 and 1555 editions are printed enface, the wood-block for the latter having been loaned for the purpose by the Louvain Library." (Cushing, A bio-bibliography of Andreas Vesalius, p.107).