Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 165

ALBRECHT DUERER (1471-1528) Della simmetria de i corpi humani, libri quattro. Presso Domenico Nicolini 1591 [6] 143 [1] ll., illus., 3 fold. plates. 31.4 cm.

Albrecht Dürer was one of the greatest painters and engravers of the German Renaissance and authored many scientific treatises on such subjects as mathematics, chemistry, engineering, anatomy, and hydraulics. However, painting and engraving were his chief pursuits. His contributions to the techniques of these fields opened up new vistas for graphic artists everywhere. He believed that the beauty of the human body could not be captured completely without a thorough knowledge of its proportions and anatomy. Dürer's important work on the proportions and symmetry of the human body was first published in German in 1528 and is filled with diagrams and figures. A Latin translation of the book appeared in two parts during the years 1532-1534, and this Italian translation of the Latin edition was published in 1591. The work is divided into four parts as the title indicates. The first two books discuss the proper proportions of the human form and its individual members; the third book gives examples of the human figure after mathematical formulae of proportions are applied to various body parts; and the fourth shows geometric representations of the human figure in motion. A fifth book without illustrations has been added by the translator, Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (1538-ca. 1621).

Cited references: Choulant-Frank pp. 143-147; Durling 1299; Garrison-Morton 149 (1528 ed.); Wellcome 1920

Gift of John Martin, M.D.