Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, Scholae medicorum Patauinae professoris : De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, Scholae medicorum Patauinae professoris : De humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Human anatomy -- Early works to 1800; Medicine -- Early works to 1800

De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body) is considered one of the most influential books when it comes to various depictions of the human anatomy. Its author was anatomist and physician, Andreas Vesalius (often considered the founder of modern human anatomy), and was published as a dedication to Charles V (ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of Habsburg Netherlands from 1506). For this particular figure (Libri Septem. Basle, 1543), Vesalius portrays the corpse of a dissected woman (specifically the position of the uterus) that supposedly means to tell us the story of how the woman had been “the handsome mistress of a certain monk” and had died from “strangulation of the uterus or some quickly devastating ailment” (O’Malley 113). The display of the woman’s corpse provides evidence that her position in society quite reflected being part of a virtuous family (as was in respect to her responsible sexuality). With regards to how the figure interprets the woman’s supposed status, one can connect such to the conflicting sexual fidelity of Desdemona throughout the story of Othello in that her purity becomes suspect in light of the false accusations against her by Iago. The obvious end to Desdemona due to these accusations is of course her murder literally at the hands of Othello (and by literally I mean by strangulation), which would tie back to Vesalius’s use of the uterus as part of the displayed female corpse to explain one of the ways in which she might have died.

Andreas Vesalius 1514-1564.

01EMORY ALMA

Basileae : Ex officina Ioannis Oporini

June, 1543

Jan Stephan van Calcar 1499-1546?, illustrator.; Joannes Oporinus 1507-1568, printer.

With permission from the Rose Library

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12 unnumbered pages, 659, that is, 663 pages, 37 unnumbered pages : illustrations (woodcuts), portrait ; 41 cm (folio in 6s)

Latin

Book

QM21 .V47 1543 FOLIO

16th Century

Paper

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