Rare large paper copy

VESALIUS, Andreas.

Opera Omnia Anatomica & Chirurgica.

Leyden: apud Joannem Du Vivie and Joan & Herm Verbeek, 1725.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002645

Large folio (462 x 287 mm). 2 parts bound in 2 volumes. Vol. I: [42], [1] 2-572 pp., with half-title, additional engraved title, letterpress titles printed in red & black, engraved title vignettes and woodcut initials, fine portrait of Vesalius, 67 plates numbered 1-67 (plate 43 within text) and several engraved text illustrations by Jan Wandelaar. Vol. II: [8], 577-684 [2], 685-1156, [52] pp., 15 engraved plates numbered 68-76, 76a-76c, 77-79, by Wandelaar, additional plate 76a a doublicate. Contemporary full vellum, all boards with central blind-stamped arabesque, ink-lettered spines with 7 raised bands (soiling to boards, bumping of corners, vellum of first vol. repaired at spine and joints), upper front boards inscribed in ink. Light browning and occasional minor spotting to text leaves throughout (stronger browning to pp. 1005-20), plates less browned and virually unspotted, light dampstains to upper- and inner margin of plate 67, small chipped tear at fore-margin of plate 74, marginal light dampstaining and short closed tear to lower margin of plate 77, foxing to pages 935-38. An outstanding copy in contemporary binding, complete with the 82 plates as called for. ----

Norman 2143; Choulant-Frank, p.183; Cushing VI.-D.8; Waller 9917; Heirs of Hippocrates 287; Lindeboom 554.
Hermann Boerhaave and Bernard Siegfried Albinus edited this work including an excellent biography of Vesalius and his work in the first volume. According to Heirs of Hippocrates, "this is the first collected edition of Vesalius' works. Although it is not complete, no expense was spared in producing the two-volume set, which contains superbly engraved copper plates by Jan Wandelaar. The editors, famous physicians in their own right, have done a magnificent job in clearly showing the astonishing achievements of Vesalius."
"In this edition, the woodcuts of the principal work and of the 'Epitome' are very beautifully copied and engraved on copper in the original size ... The remaining wood engravings are copied entirely, with all the additions, from the edition of 1555" (Choulant).
Boerhaave, an extremely influential teacher of medicine in 18th-century Leiden, was also interested in the synthesis of older and newer theories of medicine. In an effort to reconcile recent medical discoveries with those of previous centuries, he prepared new editions of a number of classic medical texts. Among these were the works of Vesalius, on which he worked in collaboration with his younger colleague, the anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus. This collected edition includes, in Volume I, De humani corporis fabrica, and in Volume II, the Epitome, the China-root Letter, Vesalius' response to the Anatomical Observations of Gabriele Falloppio, and the Chirurgia magna attributed to the great anatomist. The care with which Vesalius' illustrations were reproduced indicates that they were regarded as still having scientific value almost two centuries after their first publication. Since the survival of the woodblocks was unknown to Boerhaave, the present edition is illustrated with engraved plates copied from the printed woodcuts by Jan Wandelaar, who was also responsible for the illustrations of Albinus' own anatomical atlases (Norman).
This is a large-paper copy based on the fact that untrimmed copies of size 430 x 275 mm exist. Because of the large size of our copy, all plates are unfolded.

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