I was fascinated by Andreas Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome made in 1565. Although, all of the books in this first set were interesting in their materials, covers, letterform and imagery this book stood out as unique in many ways.

The images of the bodies were extremely detailed, much more so than the other humans featured in books like the Liber Chronicum. Due to this detail it seems that Versalius must have observed actual bodies instead of just drawing from other’s drawings as seen in Herbarius Latinus. The detail in the illustrations suggest that they were made from engravings rather than the formerly used woodcuts. Allowing for so much detail shows how education was effected by the emerging technologies in print. The book was set up in the traditional way with a separation between bodies of text and the images. However, all the muscles and organs were labeled which created a blend between the visual letterform and art.

Before developing these technologies only a few people who were trained or worked on bodies would have known what muscles and organs looked like. This book creatively shows the detail of a body without having to learn from a lifeless illustration of a corpse.  Instead it is enriched with the lively illustrations, which make the science of the human body more accessible to people who aren’t used to seeing such typical anatomy pictures. The images show the various muscle groups on graphically posed bodies, the skin hangs off the exposed muscle like a layer of clothing. Seeing the bodies exposed in such a way is unlike any other anatomy book I have seen and offers a more abstract approach to understanding the human body.