Giulio Casserio, De vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica, Ferrara: Victorius Baldinus, typographus Cameralis, sumptibus Vnitorum Patavii, 1600, plate before b2r, engraving by Josias Murer, plate size 36.6 x 24.8 cm, N*.1.9(A).

Giulio Casserio (1552-1616), born in Piacenza, began his career as an assistant to Girolamo Fabricius of Aquapendente (1537-1619) in preparing dissections. Encouraged by Fabricius in his studies, Casserio eventually obtained a doctorate in medicine at Padua, established a successful surgical practice, and succeeded Fabricius at the University. This book studied the vocal structures of animals (including humans), a hallmark of Fabricius’s anatomical investigations into animals as a whole.

This portrait shows Casserio as ‘philosopher, physician and anatomist at the age of 39’, and is accompanied by a motto, ‘The hand is laid bare by the suitably skilled hand, let the [viewer’s] mind reveal the mind [of Casserio]’. Casserio uses a scalpel and a hook to dissect the hand. This portrait is in the Vesalian spirit of first-hand dissection, and also emphasises the importance of the hand.