Charles Estienne, De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres, Paris: S. Colinaeus, 1545, p. 242, woodcut, leaf height 35 cm, K.7.28.

Charles Estienne (1505-1564) had completed this illustrated book by 1539, but its printing was delayed until 1545 because of a legal dispute with Estienne de la Riviére (d. 1569), a surgeon who had assisted in the dissections and the production of the images.

This woodcut is typical of the figures in this book in showing a posed figure (on a pillory in this case) amid a landscape or architectural structure with ornamental elements (such as the frame of the plaque or the feet of the pillory). A square piece of woodblock around an anatomical structure, as here, can be detected in many of the images. It suggests that the square section was either replaced or was cut by somebody other than the person who had cut the rest of the woodblock. In general, the density of anatomical information on the page is low. In the China root letter (1546), Vesalius criticized Estienne’s work for the very small anatomical images.

In this particular scene, on top of the building in the background, a young (naked) man points at the body, telling the bearded older man leaning on a stick that only the position of the finest structures of the brain are shown, as it is difficult to depict precisely these delicate structures that are also difficult to see in actual dissections. This seems to be an acknowledgement of the limitation of graphic representations through woodcut.

This problem could to some extent be solved with larger images focused on the brain alone, as Dryander had done, though technical ability of the woodcutter was also paramount, as can be observed in the different level of details available in Vesalius’s wooduct. Estienne’s problem may have had to do with the fact that he seems to have been intent on always showing the entire body on a page.