# Is "De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem" by Andreas Vesalius a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem by Andreas Vesalius (Ex officina Ioannis Oporini, 1543) is identified by: Large folio, Basel 1543. Basel 1543 (Oporinus) is the true first, and there is no earlier or foreign-language precedent — Latin is the original language.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Large folio, Basel 1543
- The colophon is the anchor: "Basileae, ex officina Ioannis Oporini, anno salutis reparatae MDXLIII, mense Iunio" — Basel, from the workshop of Johannes Oporinus, June 1543
- Standard collation is [12], 659 (i.e
- 663), [37] pp
- (355 leaves plus two folding sheets), with the great woodcut title of the public dissection, the portrait of Vesalius, historiated initials, and over two hundred woodcuts cut in Italy and carried over the Alps to Basel
- The decisive test against the 1555 is the title woodcut: in the 1543 block the central skeleton leans on a plain staff, the man gripping the column at the left is nude, and there is a dog but no goat at lower right
- Publisher imprint reads Ex officina Ioannis Oporini

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Andreas Vesalius |
| Publisher | Ex officina Ioannis Oporini |
| Year | 1543 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Large folio, Basel 1543 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
Large folio, Basel 1543. The colophon is the anchor: "Basileae, ex officina Ioannis Oporini, anno salutis reparatae MDXLIII, mense Iunio" — Basel, from the workshop of Johannes Oporinus, June 1543. Standard collation is [12], 659 (i.e. 663), [37] pp. (355 leaves plus two folding sheets), with the great woodcut title of the public dissection, the portrait of Vesalius, historiated initials, and over two hundred woodcuts cut in Italy and carried over the Alps to Basel. The decisive test against the 1555 is the title woodcut: in the 1543 block the central skeleton leans on a plain staff, the man gripping the column at the left is nude, and there is a dog but no goat at lower right. In the recut 1555 title the skeleton holds a scythe, the cartouche identifies Vesalius as physician to the Emperor Charles V, the column figure is clothed, a goat is added beside the dog for comparative anatomy, the privilege sits on a vivisection table, and the Vesalius figure has been adapted to match the frontispiece portrait (mole above the right eye, brocade cloak). The 1555 also uses a new type face, heavier and finer paper, larger decorated initials and re-cut initial blocks. References: Adams V603/V605 series; Garrison-Morton 377; Norman 2137/2139; Choulant-Frank; PMM 71. Identification only; no valuation is expressed.

## Is this the true first?
Basel 1543 (Oporinus) is the true first, and there is no earlier or foreign-language precedent — Latin is the original language. Two adjacent books are regularly confused with it. First, the De humani corporis fabrica librorum Epitome (Basel: Oporinus, 1543) is a separate, simultaneously issued condensation with its own plates, not a part or extract of the Fabrica. Second, the 1555 Basel second edition is itself a collected book, carrying Vesalius's final textual revisions and superior presswork; it is a second edition, not a first, and must not be catalogued as one.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Institutional-grade rarity: household copies are almost always reproductions. The most important of these is Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis Icones Anatomicae (Munich: The Bremer Press for the New York Academy of Medicine and the University of Munich Library, 1934, actually issued 1935), a limited large-format printing taken from the surviving original woodblocks then in Munich — the last use of those blocks, which were destroyed in the Second World War bombing of Munich. Icones sheets are genuine woodblock impressions and are frequently mistaken for 1543 leaves, but the volume is a 20th-century book. Also common: the 1964 and later photographic facsimiles, plate-only portfolios, framed single leaves broken out of later editions, and modern translations. A 1543 must show the June 1543 Oporinus colophon, the staff-bearing skeleton title block, and letterpress Latin text on 16th-century paper.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem* by Andreas Vesalius a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/de-humani-corporis-fabrica-libri-septem
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.