The Superb Plantin Valverde-Vesalius

(Anatomy) Valverde de Hamusco, Juan de

Vivae imagines partium corporis humanis aereis formis expressae. [and] VESALIUS, Andreas. De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome

With 42 full page engraved anatomical plates by Pieter and Franz Huys (re-engraved after Gaspar Vecerra’s engravings for the 1556 Rome edition of Valverde), all but 15 after the woodcuts for Vesalius’ FABRICA. Lacking leaf A1, engraved title page. A-V4 [-A1]. [3]-172, [2] ff. 4to, Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 16 May 1579. Contemporary vellum. Ink stamp of medical society of Sarthe (Fr.) in margin of a few leaves, foot of A2 torn away in margin.

Beautifully produced Plantin edition of this noted 16th century anatomical work, with the text of Vesalius’s Epitome. Valverde (fl. 1560) was a Spanish physician who trained in Padua under Vesalius and Colomobo, and who first published his text in Spanish in 1556 with certain improvements to Vesalius, using for the most part the woodcuts for Vesalius (re-engraved by Beccara) as the basis for the illustrations. There were, however, 15 new cuts introduced, including the famous image of the flayed man holding aloft his own skin (“possibly suggested by Michelangelo}s flayed skin in the Sistine Chapel”, according to Ruth Mortimer). Here Valverde’s text is printed in Latin by the great Antwerp printer Christopher Plantin, whose press issued some of the greatest illustrated books of the 16th century, along with the EPITOME of Vesalius, with the plates magnificently re-engraved by the Flemish artists/engravers, Pieter and Franz Huys of Antwerp Wellcome 6481; Adams V235; Choulant-Frank, p. 206; Mortimer Italian 513 (1560 Venice edition).

Item #220553       Price: $6,500.00