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Lot 325•
VESALIUS (ANDREAS) De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Venice, Francesco de Franceschi da Siena and Johannes Creigher, 1568
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25 March 2015, 11:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £12,500 inc. premium
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VESALIUS (ANDREAS)
De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, fourth (third folio) edition, woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut anatomical illustrations (some full-page) and initials, occasional light soiling, title with 2 small holes in margins, one leaf torn without loss, IN A PAPAL BINDING FOR ALEXANDER VII, BY THE ROMAN BINDER GREGORIO ANDREOLI, mid seventeenth century red panelled morocco, the sides tooled in gilt to a post-fanfare design with outer and inner ornamental borders, the latter incorporating motifs derived from the Chigi family arms and a semé of tiny stars or flames at corners, the central panels with roll tool border and fan corner ornaments enclosing central arms of Fabio Chigi, Pope Alexander VII, spine gilt tooled in 8 decorative compartments containing repeated Chigi family motifs, later endpapers, extremities rubbed [Adams V606; Choulant-Frank, p. 182; Cushing VI.A.-4; Durling 4580; Osler 569; PMM 71 (first edition); Waller 9902], folio (315 x 215mm.), Venice, Francesco de Franceschi da Siena and Johannes Creigher, 1568
Footnotes
THE MOST IMPORTANT ANATOMICAL WORK EVER PUBLISHED: THE DYSONS PERRINS COPY IN A MAGNIFICENT ROMAN PAPAL BINDING.
Vesalius is widely considered to be the founder of the modern science of anatomy and De humani corporis the most beautiful medical book ever published. First published in 1543, it combined scientific theory, art and typography in a unprecedented manner, overturning in the process many of the theories and practices of the day. "Galen was not merely improved upon: he was superseded; and the history of anatomy is divided into two periods, pre-Vesalian and post-Vesalian" (Printing and the Mind of Man). It is not altogether surprising that Pope Alexander, with his love of literature, philosophy, art and architecture, should possess a copy of Vesalius, as the theory that dissection was prohibited by the Catholic Church is now thought to have been exaggerated.
The illustrations in this third folio edition are reduced copies of those which appeared in the first edition. "The copying was done from the Oporin edition of 1555 and includes eight additions made in 1555. The Basel woodcuts are attributed to Jan Stephan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian. Franceschi states in his dedication to Antonio Montecatini that Giovanni Chrieger cut these Venice copies" (Mortimer).
The fine Rome binding is from the the 'Rospigliosi bindery', formerly known under that name in recognition of its main patron, Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, but subsequently identified by Josè Ruysschaert as being the workshop of Gregorio and Giovanni Andreoli. Active from around 1630, it was one of the busiest and most celebrated Roman shops of the seventeenth century. Its patrons included Alexander VII, who named Gregorio 'Vatican Binder for life', and several other popes, along with noble families such as the Medici and Borghese, and royalty such as Rospigliosi's close friend, Queen Christina of Sweden.
References: the binding is mentioned in Mirjam M. Foot's The Henry Davis Gift, I, p.328, and appears as no. [10] in her list of the Rospigliosi bindings on p.333. Some of the same tools can be seen on a binding identified as being by Gregorio Andreoli in the British Library, on a copy of a 1658 Series actorum omnium in canonizatione Sancti Thomae a Villanova... a Alexandro VII (see The Henry Davis Gift, vol. III, p.436-437, no. [368]).
Provenance: Pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi), his arms on binding; Charles William Dyson Perrins, monogrammed bookplate and shelf label; his sale, Sothebys, 19 July 1949, lot 290.
Saleroom notices
Possibly a remboitage.