The first printed medical book with illustrations was the Fasiculus medicinae printed at Venice by Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis in 1491. It contained ten elegant woodcuts, including anatomical depictions of the human body. The Library’s copy of the 1500 edition ( Inc.3.B.3.45[1519]) is not part of Keynes’s collection, but Keynes assembled a fine library of early anatomical works, including the first edition of Andreas Vesalius’ groundbreaking De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543), which is part of this exhibition.

The woodcuts for the Fabrica demonstrate the sophistication that could be achieved by this method of reproducing anatomical illustrations in print. In Valverde’s Vivae imagines partium corporis humani aereis formis expressae, also on display, the illustrations are printed instead as intaglio engravings in a separate process from the printing of the text, using a rolling press.