The first illustrated Spanish anatomical work

MONTANA de MONSERRATE, Bernardino.

Libro de la anothomia del hombre.

Valladolid: Sebastian Martinez, 1551.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Good. Item #001825

2 November 1551. Folio (268x183 mm). [8], 135 (of 136) leaves. Title in red and black with large woodcut coat-of-arms, sectional title on K2 with woodcut border signed 'S.M.', and 10 (of 12) large (three-quarter page) anatomical woodcuts in text, lacking leaf R5 with two woodcuts (supplied in facsimile), last two leaves with cut offs (with loss of text), faded ink spotting to p. 87, some browning and spotting, dampstaining to gutter of last few leaves. Contemporary vellum with closures (restored, warped and spotted), later endpapers. Except for the paper faults, a good, clean copy of this rare and important work. ----

Cushing Vesalius (addenda) 598; NLM/Durling 2339; Garrison-Morton 378.01; Norman 1540; Waller 6647; Wellcome 4406 - FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED SPANISH ANATOMICAL WORK, and the first work to introduce Vesalian anatomical figures to a Spanish audience. 'While Valverde di Hamusco's Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano (1556) is often credited with introducing into Spain the Vesalian anatomical iconography coupled with a vernacular text, this honor actually belongs to Montana de Monserrate's Anothomia, whose twelve anatomical cuts included nine copies from either the Fabrica or the Epitome. These nine cuts, all of them reduced and simplified, included three Vesalian "musclemen", two plates representing the venous and arterial systems, two plates of the peripheral and central nervous systems, a figure combining Vesalian representations of the genito-urinary and thoracic organs, and a reversed copy of the Fabrica's first skeleton plate. Of the remaining three plates two, illustrating views of the skeleton, were derived from Berengario and Dryander, while the third, a crude semi-schematic representation of the thoracic and abdominal organs, is probably original. As the woodcut border is signed with the initials of the printer, Sebastian Martinez, it is likely that he executed the woodcuts.

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