Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, first published in 1543, is, along with William Harvey's classic work from 1628 on the discovery of the circulation of the blood, one of the two most famous books in the history of medicine. A cornerstone of the scientific revolution, published the same year as Copernicus's monumental treatise on the heliocentric universe, De humani corporis fabrica inaugurated the modern study of anatomy, leading to the eventual overturn of the Galenic system that had dominated medical science for fourteen centuries. Illustrated with woodcuts by artists in the school of Titian that have for centuries remained standard icons of medical literature, Vesalius's work is also a classic of sixteenth-century graphic art.
When it was originally published in the mid-sixteenth century, the Fabrica's Latin text guaranteed its accessibility to an international medical and scientific audience, all of whom had been educated to read and write Latin. Fewer and fewer physicians and scientists read Latin today, however, and even professional classicists have reported considerable difficulty in deciphering Vesalius' technical Renaissance medical Latin. Although many editions, revisions, adaptations, and facsimiles of Vesalius's Fabrica were published over the centuries, before now the work had never been translated, except for fragments, into a modern language other than Russian (Moscow, 1950 1954). The Richardson and Carman translation supplies a modern, accessible version of this monumental work, which will remain a lasting contribution to our knowledge of the history of Renaissance medicine and science. Readers will be impressed by the quality of the detailed anatomy and may be surprised by the grandeur and elegance of Vesalius's literary style as rendered by the translators.
The fourth volume in Richardson and Carman's award-winning translation contains the fifth book of Vesalius's Fabrica: Book V, The Organs of Nutrition and Generation. The book contains 19 chapters describing the organs of nutrition and generation, illustrated with 31 woodcuts reproduced at or near original size. The final chapter contains Vesalius's detailed instructions for performing an abdominal dissection. The chapters end with detailed translator s notes explaining subtleties in the translation. There are also indexes to the text, to people and places, to words from Arabic, Greek and Latin, and to the translator' notes. A preface by Dr. Carman provides details about the anatomy described therein.
The lasting influences of both Vesalius's many discoveries and the dramatic woodcuts on the history of anatomy and the visual arts cannot be overestimated. As Dr. Richardson stated in his preface to Book II, The reader cannot but admire Vesalius's attention to detail, his astounding memory, his powers of observation and description, and his capacity for sheer hard work.
Norman Anatomy Series, No. 4
Norman Landmarks Series, No. 5
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