Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 161

JACOPO BERENGARIO DA CARPI (1470-1530) Isagoge breves, perlucide ac uberime, in anatomia humani corporis. Impressum per Benedictum Hectoris 1522] 72 ll., illus. (woodcuts), including 4 plates. 21.1 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 161

Berengario was an adherent and serious student of Mondino and followed him in all matters pertaining to anatomy. He wrote Commentaria on Mondino's Anothomia (see No. 97) in 1521 and, because he was such a discerning observer, was able to correct many of Mondino's shortcomings and add many of his own observations. He then decided to write his own anatomical compendium and produced this work in 1522. Although his illustrations are inadequate and lacking in detail, his woodcuts are believed to be the first taken directly from human dissections. The full-length figures are always shown in action poses and his muscle figures and skeletons are drawn against landscape backgrounds in the same fashion used later by Estienne and Vesalius. Although Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings (see No. 144 ff.) received limited circulation, it appears that Berengario was acquainted with them since the influence of Leonardo's artistic techniques is evident in a number of Berengario's woodcuts. The book is of unusual rarity and is an important example of anatomical illustration in the pre-Vesalian period.

See Related Record(s): 97 144

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, pp. 136-142; Cushing B298; Durling 534 (1523 ed.); Garrison-Morton 368; Waller 907; Wellcome 782

Gift of John Martin, M.D.