VESALIUS Andreas De Humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Cushing, pp.91-92; Durling, 4579 ; Osler, 568 ; Waller, 9901 ;Garrison-Morton, 377: “The better edition of the Fabrica” ; VD-16, V-911. See Dibner, Heralds of Science, 122 ; Heirs of Hippocrates, 281; Horblit, 98; PMM, 91 (for the first edition 1543).

Second folio edition. This is the finest edition from every point of view, including its typography, quality of illustration, and textual content. 

It is preceded by the first (illustrated) folio edition 1543, and an unauthorized, unillustrated edition, in smaller format.

Like the first edition of 1543, it is illustrated with the magnificent woodcuts by Jan Stephan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian. The printing of this second edition is more accurate, as it is printed on better-quality paper and has only 49 lines on the page instead of 57 for the 1543 edition, making it easier to read. This 1555 edition also contains the final corrections by Vesalius himself (he died in 1564).

This edition was prepared on a much more sumptuous scale than the first.  The paper is heavier and the type larger, with 49 instead of 57 lines to the page, and the titlepage was recut.  It incorporates Vesalius’ final textual revisions (he died in 1564).

“The impression of the woodcuts is often clearer, and more beautiful than in the previous edition; some of the figures have been somewhat improved upon in the cutting and in the lettering.  The presswork is more splendid; the fancy initials throughout are larger and more beautiful and are also adorned with drawings different from those of the first edition.  This second edition therefore has, especially for practical purposes, advantages over the first on account of additions in the text and in the illustrations and particularly on account of its more splendid makeup.”–Choulant-Frank, p. 182.

“The new edition of the Fabrica was much improved…The second edition is…much easier to read…In respect to diagrams and illustrations, two general alterations are apparent in the revised edition.  First, an effort was made to place the illustrations so as to improve the appearance of the work.  This meant that in some instances where, in the first edition, several illustrations were crowded together, in the second they were spaced, sometimes further removed from one another by rearrangement of the text relative to the illustrations, sometimes even placed on different pages.  Second, the letters on the figures were made to stand out more clearly.  This was accomplished by reworking the blocks to remove shadows that, in the first edition, frequently made it difficult to read the letters…

“Examination of the individual illustrations indicates that some were removed, others reworked, and still other replaced by completely new figures…It is amazing how little the wood blocks suffered in the approximate decade or more between the first and second editions.”–O’Malley, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels 1514-1564, pp. 272-74 (& see pp. 463-64 for a detailed analysis of the alterations to the illustrations and text).

Leaves a1 (title) and b5 (text) remargined, final leaf window mounted, nevertheless a good and very broad margined copy.