Thomas Geminus, Compendiosa totius anatomiae delineatio aere exarata, London: T. Geminus, 1559, after [3v], flap anatomy, woodcut, leaf size 37 x 40 cm, K.7.15.

The Compendious delineation of the whole of anatomy engraved in copper, first published in 1545 by Thomas Geminus (fl. 1540–1562), printer, engraver and instrument-maker, was the first book to contain images copied from Vesalius in engraving.

This edition from 1559 contains an additional insert of male and female figures with additional paper flaps to show the interior organs. No doubt this was inspired by the paper manikin in Vesalius’s Epitome, but this was a much cruder construction.

At the top, above the male figures is a caption in Latin, ‘a lively delineation of the interior parts of the human body’; above the woman, ‘very useful anatomy; knowledge of the interior parts of the woman, also hardly unpleasant to know [is] their position, shape, number and situation.’ Here the figures are seated indoors on a bench, perhaps in a bath house, with the male figure placing his left hand in a basin. The female figure holds in her right hand a small board with the words ‘nosce te ipsum’ (know thyself), a well-known ancient maxim, frequently associated with anatomical knowledge.

Several versions of a similar anatomical broadside with paper flaps circulated from the middle of the sixteenth century.