Tabulae Anatomicae
The Tabulae Anatomicae were in the form of Fliegende Blätter, or loose leaves, and consisted of six plates which are now among the rarest of medical works. They bore the following title:
Tabulae Anatomicae. Imprimebat Venetiis B(ernardinus).
Vitalis Venetus sumptibus Joannis Stephani
Calcarensis Prostrant verò in officina
D. Bernardini. a. 1538.
In the preface Vesalius says that no one can learn either botany or anatomy from figures alone, but illustrations are a valuable means toward the imparting of knowledge. In publishing these plates he hopes to benefit those persons who had attended his public dissections. Not a line in these pictures is unnatural; all has been reproduced just as he had shown in his demonstrations. He gives due credit to van Calcar, the artist who made the drawings of the three skeletons. The other pictures were made by the author himself.
The Tabulae Anatomicae were arranged in the following order:—
I.—The Portal System and the Organs of Generation;
II.—The Venae Cavae and Chief Veins;
III.—The Great Artery—Arteria Magna—and the Heart;
IV.—The Skeleton in its Anterior View;
V.—The Skeleton in its Side View;
VI.—The Skeleton in its Posterior View.
The plates are of large dimensions, measuring over sixteen inches in length, and were cut in wood. Like those in the Fabrica, they were made in Italy. Owing to their transient use by medical students, the Tabulae were soon destroyed, although unauthorized editions were printed in several cities. The book was dedicated to Narcissus of Parthenope (Narciso Verdunno, or Vertuneo) who, in 1520, was first physician to the crown of Naples, and later, in 1524, was physician and councilor to Charles the Fifth. It is noteworthy that three of these plates deal with the skeleton, a subject to which Vesalius had given much attention. The absence of a plate showing the nervous system is also to be noted. Vesalius had such a plate prepared, and it appeared in a pirated edition of the Tabulae which was published at Cologne in 1539. The large size of these plates, their fidelity to nature, and the skill with which they were cut in wood, were features which showed to the world that a real master of anatomy had been born. The original drawings were made by Jan Stephan van Calcar, who probably also was the engraver.
Only two copies of the Tabulae Anatomicae are known. A fine edition of these plates, reproduced by photography, was privately issued in 1874 by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, the talented author of the Annals of the Artists of Spain.
VIEW OF THE CITY OF BASEL IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER NINTH
Publication of the Fabrica
On the first day of August, 1542, after three years of strenuous labor, Vesalius completed the Fabrica, and twelve days later he wrote the last word of the Epitome. The blocks for the Fabrica, and also those for the Epitome, were made in Italy. In the summer of 1542 they were conveyed to Basel by a merchant named Danoni and were safely delivered to the printer, Oporinus. They were accompanied by a long Latin letter, written by Vesalius to his friend, “Joannes Oporinus, professor of Greek letters in Basel”. He begs Oporinus to take the greatest care that the printed illustrations shall correspond with the proofs which accompany the blocks. “Every detail must be distinctly visible, so that each cut shall have the effect of a picture”. Early in the following year Vesalius went to Basel to superintend the printing of his books. While there, he conducted a demonstration in anatomy—the first which had occurred in that city since 1531—and presented the articulated skeleton of the subject to the University. Part of this skeleton exists today. It is thought to be the oldest anatomical preparation in existence.