Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Vesalius, Andreas, 1514-1564.
2. John Shaw Billings Memorial Collection.

Description

1. 45 l. 40 pl.; 41 cm. (fol.)

Subject

1. Anatome > Plates
2. Human anatomy > Early works to 1800
3. Anatomy

Call number

1. *KC+++ 1545 (Geminus, T. Compendiosa)

Note

1. First edition.
2. Signatures: 1 leaf unsigned; 1 leaf signed [fleuron], A⁶, B⁵-C⁵, D⁶-G⁶, H³. Signature [B₄] signed Biiiiv; sig. [B₅] signed Bvi.
3. Title-page, l. 1; dedication to Henry VIII, signed and dated: Tuæ Maiestati semper mancipa- / tissimus Thomas Geminus / Lysiensis. / Londini: Quarto Calendas / Octobres. / Anno 1545. / , l. 2; text and description of plates, in double columns, l. 3-45; colophon, at end, l. 45.
4. "Made up of the Latin text of Vesalius's Epitome together with some portions of his longer work, and illustrated with a set of plates engraved on copper by Geminus himself. These are moderately skilful copies of nearly all the woodcuts [from drawings by the painter Johannes van Calcar] in Vesalius's original book together with a few reduced from those larger and finer cuts which had been collected in the Epitome ... Vesalius ... complained bitterly, not of the piracy of his text ... but of the injustice done to his illustrations by want of knowledge and accuracy in the copyist ... [The] engraved title-page, though its heraldic and emblematical elements are English from the nature of the case, is in style certainly and distinctively Flemish--the Italianate Flemish, it must of course be understood, of the mid sixteenth century. It is one of the earliest examples of that mode of ornament made up of fanciful architectural forms mixed with strap-work, foliage, animals, and grotesque human masks and figures, which was presently ... to pervade all the schools of Europe ... Appearing in this country, where the art of metal-engraving was in general so belated, it is, oddly enough, the first important instance of a title-page so engraved which occurs anywhere. In design its closest affinity seems to be the work of ... Peter Coeck ... Is it possible that Geminus may have engraved this title-page, or caused it to be engraved, by a hand more skilful than his own ... from a drawing ... by Peter Coeck himself? ... [Geminus was] the first engraver on metal who worked, or at all events the first who put his name to his work, in England ... [although Roesslin's De partu hominis issued as The byrth of Mankynde by Thomas Raynald at London in 1540] is the first known appearance of copper plate engraving in England."--cf. Colvin, Sir Sidney. Early engraving & engravers in England. 1905. p. 11-15.

Indexed in (note)

1. Hazlitt
2. Brunet
3. STC

Author

1. Geminus, Thomas, -1562.

Title

1. Compendiosa / totius Anatomie delineatio, ære / exarata: per Thomam Geminum. /

Imprint

1. Londini. / Londini in officina Ioanni Herfordie, Anno Domini. / 1545. / Mense Octobri:] /

Indexed in:

1. Hazlitt II, 244
2. Brunet, tome 2, p. 1525
3. STC 11714

Local note

1. In contemporary brown leather binding stamped with bands in a Renaissance design in which the initials R V appear. In the centre of the front panel is stamped, in silver, a heart shaped device containing the initials P V P or R V P.

Connect to:

1. NYPL Digital Collections
2. Request access to this item in the Schwarzman Rare Books Collection

Added author

1. Vesalius, Andreas, 1514-1564.
2. Vesalius, Andreas, 1514-1564. De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome.
3. John Shaw Billings Memorial Collection.

LCCN

1. 48038614 //r903

Research call number

1. *KC+++ 1545 (Geminus, T. Compendiosa)