Bibliología de la “Fábrica” (1543)

Abstract

The 2014 December 31st the Vth centennial of the birth of Andrea Vesalius has been celebrated. This event is a real good chance to revise his masterpiece, the Fabrica, studying its more relevant aspects: editions, typography and anatomical illustrations. From this work it is very clear that Vesalius is a great editor of anatomical books, achieving its summit with the 1555 Fabrica. However, he is an outstanding anatomist like a lot of Renaissance anatomists as well. Is in fact the Fabrica which has exalted his universal fame but not his anatomical practice. This matter is very clear in his anatomical mistakes, gross some of them, which can be seen in his pictures, being contradictory with his teachings: to dissect always human corpses but not animal. Surprisingly he accused to Galen of dissecting animals but Vesalius did the same many times. As a conclusive sentence of this paper it should be said that it is really true that Vesalius turned the anatomy into a fine art with his 1555 Fabrica