Andreas Vesalius' seminal work of early modern anatomy was sold for the sensational sum of 367,237 Euro during the recent Dorotheum book auction on 28th June 2017. This represents the highest winning bid for a book at a Dorotheum auction to date.
The first edition of 1543 „De humani corporis fabrica libri septem“ (On the architecture of the human body) by Vesalius, a physician practising in Padua, was sold to a bidder personally present at the auction.
Foundation of early modern anatomy
Aside from the large number of coloured illustrations, the volume also contains notes by previous owners, incl. the German physician Caspar Naevius (1513 – 1579), on the plague in Venice ( „erschröcklichen und unerhörten Pestilenz zu Venedig anno 1576“), as well as a list of patients (princes, counts, barons). Vesalius, later to become the personal physician of Emperor Charles V. and King Philip II. of Spain, was the first to conduct his studies on human cadavers.
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