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Vesalius, Andreas : Icones Anatomicae. Tabulae Selectae

(Munich: Bremer Press, 1934)., 1934

1-50 unnumbered folios of 40 loose woodcut impressions. Large Folio (22 3/8 x 16 3/4 ). 40 sheets (21 3/4 x 16 1/4 ) printed on handmade, watermarked paper with deckle edges (plus 1 unprinted sheet). Presented in a light brown coarse-linen covered folio folder with beveled edges, cloth ties, and gilt-stamped titles front. The history and story of the Vesalius blocks which were cut using Vesalius original drawings and used in the printing of his monumental De humani corporis fabrica and his Epitome in 1543, is a story of epic proportions. The woodcuts were so massive and done with such precision and creativity, that for several hundred years they were widely attributed to the master Titian. Lost, refound, sold, lost again many times and finally rediscovered, for the final time, in 1932 by Samuel Lambert with the help of the renowned printer from the Bremer Press, Willy Wiegand, in the attic of the LMU Munich Library in a crate containing 230 blocks. Perhaps the most iconic and important block found was the title-page image of Vesalius conducting a dissection of a woman before a theater of 75 observing individuals believed to be the first time a public dissection was depicted. Wiegand and the Bremer Press were widely considered Europe s finest printer and press and were chosen to publish a contemporary atlas pulled from all of the Vesalius blocks. The difficulty of this undertaking was compounded by the fact that almost all of the blocks were warped from age and improper storage, and also by the extreme financial precarious state of Germany in general and the Press in particular. The brilliant success of the published works bespeaks deeply of the skill of the printer Wiegand; the Bremer Press impressions are widely considered to be the finest ever done from original Renaissance blocks. The subsequent fate of the Press and blocks is well known: the Press went bankrupt shortly after publication and the blocks were destroyed on 16 July 1944 by a bombing run by the U. S. Air Force which sadly hit the Munich Library were the blocks were stored in a supposedly bomb-proof basement. Bremer Press printed 615 numbered copies of the atlas and another 110 without text. In addition there were fifty unbound Tabula selecta of forty impressions presented in a linen covered folder. This is one of those folios. All 40 impressions are present and in bright, fine condition. Contained in the 40 impressions are the two title pages dissecting theater images, musculature, craniums, circulatory system, full male and female frontal nudes, et al. The folder is lacking the original ties and there is light soil but overall very bright. On the cover verso is a small but nice association bookplate from the library of G. S. T. Cavanagh, who was a noted Vesalius scholar and rare medical book librarian, and whose Sacrum Press published in 1996 The Panorama of Vesalius: A Lost Design from Titians Studio. Undoubtedly most of the 50 sets have long since been broken up and the presence of a complete set is very scarce indeed.. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Hardcover

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