De humani corporis fabrica: Rare Book of the Week
Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica, 1543, concealed in a binding made from a medieval antiphonal leaf
The Huntington has re-acquired a 1543 first edition of De humani corporis fabrica (On the fabric of the human body) by Andreas Vesalius which revolutionized the field of anatomy.
The Fabrica, with its groundbreaking detailed desriptions of the human body and large woodcut illustrations, originally belonged to the Los Angeles County Medical Association Library which bought it in 1937 for 762 Swiss francs (around $175 then). It donated it to The Huntington in the 1990s, but was auctioned as it was a duplicate of a copy The Huntington already held, a common practice at the time.
The Huntington's other copy of the Fabrica is slightly damaged so the purchase from a bookseller is a happy return, once again joining the library's other Vesalian titles.
