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NLM’S UNIQUE DE FABRICAPOSTED BY CIRCULATING NOW ON DECEMBER 16, 2014 IN ANDREAS VESALIUS AT 500,COLLECTIONS, RARE BOOKS & JOURNALS, SERIES | 2 COMMENTS

By Michael J. North and Laura Hartman

This year we commemorate the500th anniversary of the birth ofAndreas Vesalius (1514–1564) whois best known for changing howwe do medical research with hisgroundbreaking book, De HumaniCorporis Fabrica Libri Septem(Seven Chapters on the Structureof the Human Body), published in1543 and generally known as DeFabrica.

The National Library of Medicine isfortunate enough to own a firstedition of De Fabrica printed inBasel in 1543. While every copy ofDe Fabrica is unique and

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Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543

NLM #2295005

important, NLM’s has some specialtraits relating to its history beforearriving at the Library of the

Surgeon General in the late 19th-century, including passing throughthe hands of a famous Protestant German theologian, a Poet Laureate,a botanist, and at least two practicing physicians.

One of the most striking features of NLM’s De Fabrica is a handwrittenpoem on the volume’s front flyleaf by Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) which appears to be a personal reflection upon Vesalius’sfamous work. Philipp Melanchthon was a German theologian, workingwith Martin Luther as one of the primary intellectual leaders of theProtestant Reformation. Written in Latin in Nuremberg, Germany, on“the Day of St. Paul’s Conversion [January 25], 1552,” in what isindisputably his hand, the poem is entitled, “On Contemplation of theHuman Body,” a clear reference to the book’s own title, “On theStructure of the Human Body.” In fact, it is known that Melanchthonwas in Nuremberg from January 22 to March 10, 1552, on his way tothe Council of Trent in Northern Italy. We do not know if Melanchthonowned the copy himself—more likely it was owned by a colleague—but it nonetheless appears that he studied this exact copy; he laterpromoted the book as an essential tool to understanding the arts andthe study of man. A line from the poem reads, in translation byDorothy Schullian who was curator of the rare book collections at thislibrary in the 1940s, “With purpose God assigned to each its ownallotted task, And ordered that man’s body be a temple to Himself.” Formore on how Melanchthon’s enthusiasm for Vesalius revolutionizedthe teaching of anatomy at the University of Wittenberg, see VictoriaNutton’s essay “Wittenberg Anatomy” in Medicine and theReformation.

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We have only scattered and incomplete clues as to who owned thebook over the next 250 years. On the final page of the volume at thetop is a short inscription, much of it cut off, which reads (in Latin andGerman): “In the year 1554 on 2[7?] of August, Leipzig [Germany],[illegible] from Master Matthias [Hausleins?], Anatomia CorporisHumani,” implying that the book changed hands in Leipzig in 1554, butbecause the text is cut off at the top, we are unable to read the fullname of the mysterious owner.

“In the year 1554 on 2[7?] of August, Leipzig [Germany]”

The title page has two early ownership signatures which are alsobarely legible: those of Isaac Schaller and Samuel Radeschinsky deRadeschowitz. Isaac Schaller (died 1586) was a noted physician andastronomer in Nuremberg who attended the Universities of Wittenbergand Tübingen in the 1540s and later served as the physician toAugustus the Elector of Saxony (1526–1586) in Dresden, where hedied. Schaller may have been quite a book collector and scholar: hisownership signature has also been found on a copy of Nicolaus

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Copernicus’s landmark book, De Revolutionibus, also printed in 1543.There were numerous ties between Schaller’s family and PhilippMelanchthon: Schaller’s uncle, Caspar Schaller, was a minister andearly follower of Melanchthon; Caspar’s brother, Hieronymus Schaller,also a physician, married Melanchthon’s grand-daughter; bothHieronymus and Isaac’s father Bartholomeus Schaller attended theUniversity of Wittenberg in the 1520s; and at least ten letters writtenbetween 1520 and 1545 survive between Melanchthon and Schaller’sfather. Might Isaac Schaller have owned this copy of De Fabrica whenMelanchthon came through Nuremberg in January of 1552? We canonly speculate.

Two early ownership signatures are barely legible: those of Isaac Schaller and

Samuel Radeschinsky de Radeschowitz.

Samuel Radeschinsky von Radeschowitz (or Radešínský z Radešovic;died 1609) was a Poet Laureate and an Imperial Count Palatine (ormagistrate) for the Holy Roman Emperors in the principality of CieszynSilesia (in Upper Silesia) and the Duchy of Glogow (in Lower Silesia). Hewrote on religious legal topics and was sent to Prague in 1595, 1600,and 1607 to settle judicial cases related to religion. We have no cluesabout how our De Fabrica passed from Schaller into Radeschinsky’shands or of its whereabouts for much of the next 200 years.

The next two known owners of the volume are indicated bybookplates on the front flyleaf. Johann Wilhelm Schlegel (1774–1812)was the son of a gynecologist, and his dissertation on galvanism for hismedical degree from the University of Leipzig in 1797 is in the NLMcollection. The next owner was one of Schlegel’s elder colleagues atthe University of Leipzig, Christian Erhard Kapp (1739–1824). Kapppracticed in Leipzig and Dresden, and he was noted for histranslations from English of medical works by William Cullen andBenjamin Bell. It seems likely that after the younger Schlegel’s death in

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1812, Kapp was able to purchase some items from his library.

Bookplates on the front flyleaf.

The Library’s copy of De Fabrica contains a handwritten note inGerman on the front flyleaf just above Schlegel’s and Kapp’sbookplates stating that the volume was acquired by Ludolph ChristianTreviranus in 1828 from Rudolf Autun (or Anton?). We have so far beenunable to identify this Autun or Anton, but he was likely a physician,scientist, or book dealer. Treviranus (1779–1864) was a noted Germanbotanist, who worked with his brother Gottfried Reinhold Treviranuson a number of works, including editing a five volume work onphysiology together in the 1820s and 1830s. In the year after his death,Ludolph’s extensive library was auctioned off in Bonn, Germany overseven days from May 22 to 30, 1865. His library reflected his interest innatural history, particularly in woodcut illustrations of plants from the15th and 16th centuries; in fact, NLM owns another book from hislibrary: Rariorum Aliquot Stirpium per Pannoniam, Austriam, & Vicinas… Historia (Inquiry into Unusual Plants of Pannonia, Austria, and theEnvirons) by Charles de L’Ecluse, published in Antwerp in 1583 andcontaining numerous fine woodcut illustrations.

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We do not know who acquired this copy of De Fabrica from LudolphTreviranus, but it was likely a German bookseller. By the early 1870s,John Shaw Billings, the new Director of the Library of the SurgeonGeneral, had already begun his mission to put together an importantcollection relating to the history of medicine in Washington, D.C. TheLibrary’s collection of German bookseller catalogs from the 1870s isimpressive, and it is likely that one of these dealers supplied us withthis valuable treasure; in fact the book dealer’s German descriptionfrom his catalog was cut out and pasted onto the front flyleaf.Unfortunately we do not know the dealer’s name, and the only noticein the Library’s accession log is that it was added to the collection onJuly 18, 1873. The price paid, according to the catalog entry was “75—”.If this was 75 German Gold Marks, then it would have been theequivalent of US$18.75 in 1873, or approximately US$375 in today’scurrency—a tremendous bargain.

Bookseller’s catalog information on the front flyleaf.

The National Library of Medicine’s copy of De Fabrica has made a veryinteresting trek around what is today eastern Germany, remainingthere for over 300 years after its publication in nearby Switzerland.

The National Library of Medicine has scanned and made available over40 pages of the famous woodcut images from De Fabrica at highresolution, and many of them are described in the Library’s Turningthe Pages project featuring the work. The National Library of Medicinehas a large collection of works by and about Andreas Vesalius and hisgroundbreaking approach. To learn more about them, please feel freeto contact us at hmdref@mail.nlm.nih.gov.

This article is the sixth in a series to commemorate the 500th

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anniversary of the birth of the great anatomist Andreas Vesalius, bornon December 31, 1514.

The authors would like to thank Meghan Constantinou, Librarian atThe Grolier Club for her assistance in helping to locate provenanceinformation about this book using auction records in the Club’scollections.

Michael J. North is the Head of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts in theHistory of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.

Laura Hartman is a Rare Book Cataloger in the History of MedicineDivision at the National Library of Medicine.

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NIH HISTORY OFFICE (@HISTORYATNIH)DECEMBER 17, 2014The provenance research for this is outstanding. We arefortunate to still have print copies to provide the contextof the times.

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MICHAEL NORTHDECEMBER 17, 2014Thanks- that is one reason we save everything in eachvolume: history of medicine scholarship is often aboutmore than just the printed texts.

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