1543 Fabrica Title Page

One of the most collectible books in medical sciences and specifically in human anatomy is “De Humani Corporis Fabrica; Libri Septem” (Seven books on the structure of the Human Body) published in 1543 by Andreas Vesalius. This book is known as the “Fabrica” among Vesaliana enthusiasts.

The story of the Fabrica is complicated and the books, research papers, paintings, statues, medals, etc. on Vesalius and the Fabrica number in the thousands.

The first edition of the Fabrica was published in 1543, it was well received and was followed by the second edition in 1555. Vesalius died in 1564 and no further editions of the Fabrica were published. There are several translations in different languages, the latest is the “New Fabrica” published in 2013. This book included annotations by Vesalius himself found in a 1555 Fabrica. This particular “Annotated Fabrica” has a history worth reading and is one of the most expensive books ever sold at an auction in February 2024 for 2.23 million US dollars.

Part of book collectibles are single pages cut off a book. This method was quite common among antiquarians in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. As a book collector, I think it is not a good idea to destroy a great book in the quest to obtain more money selling it as individual pages.

Be that as it may, in early 2023 I was notified by my good friend Dr. Randall Wolf, one of the contributors of Clinical Anatomy Associates, of an auction by Potter and Potter where two loose pages of the 1543 Fabrica would be placed on the auction block. With his help and lots of luck, I was able to secure item 298, which was a single page of the Fabrica, page 187, one of the “muscle men”, which depicts the “Liber II, Sexta Musculorum Tabula” (Book 2, Sixth Muscle Image).

Cover page of the June 2023 Potter&Potter Auction

Item 298 description

One of the problems that collectors face is to prove that a certain item is original, the second one is provenance (where does the item come from?).

The first question was answered in Belgium when Dr. Wolf and I visited Dr. Francis Van Glabbeek and his personal collection in June 2023 with occasion of the 2023 Vesalius Triennial Meeting in the city of Antwerp. We were able to compare in minute detail the original image and my single page, including the type of paper and the text on the opposite page. They were a perfect match, proving that this page was indeed taken of an original 1543 Fabrica.

The second question was answered by the auctioneer, as the page belonged to the library of Ronald K. Siegel, PH.D. (1943-2019), an American psychopharmacologist and associate research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before Dr. Siegel, we do not know how or when he acquired this single leaf of the Fabrica.

The page was carefully framed by Becky Gebhart, owner of “Picture This” in Lebanon, OH, and is secured with museum-quality glass. It in now on the wall facing my desk. Here it is:

Page 188, the verso of page 187 is not visible because of the frame. This page title is "Sextæ Musculorum tabulæ charactermum index" and lists the symbols on the image.