(Left) Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel: J. Oporinus, 1555 frontispiece, woodcut, leaf height 43 cm, N*.1.1(A); and (right) Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel: ex. off. J. Oporini, 1543, frontispiece, woodcut, leaf height 43 cm, N*.1.2(A).

This copy of the 1555 edition bears the monogram of Thomas Lorkyn (c.1528-1591), regius professor of physic in the University of Cambridge. At the time of his death, Lorkyn owned over 600 volumes of books (valued at £40.17s.11d). About 140 of his medical books have survived at Cambridge University Library.

The 1555 frontispiece is juxtaposed with the1543 version, for easier comparison, as there are several alterations in the later version. The skeleton in the middle now sports a scythe, for example, and the man clinging to the left-hand column is clothed. It is a mystery why the second edition of the Fabrica had a new frontispiece closely based on that of the first edition, but with subtle differences. It was once believed that the woodblock for the 1543 frontispiece must have been lost or damaged by 1555, but when the woodblocks for the Fabrica and the Epitome were rediscovered in the Library of the University of Munich in the early 1930s, the woodblock of the 1543 frontispiece was found intact. All the woodblocks were, however, subsequently destroyed in the bombing of Munich during the Second World War.