Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel: J. Oporinus, 1555, p. 21, woodcut, leaf height 43 cm, N*.1.1(A).

This copy of the 1555 edition was once owned by Thomas Lorkyn (c.1528-1591), regius professor of physic in the University of Cambridge.

This image shows one ‘natural’ skull and four ‘unnatural ones’. Vesalius described the natural shape of the skull as an elongated sphere, compressed on either side and protruding at the front and the back. The remaining four ‘unnatural’ shapes of the skull appear to show the logical variation of this natural shape. The variations of sutures in the unnaturally shaped skulls appear to be imaginary rather than observed. Vesalius pointed out that the deformed and reviling classical solider, Thersites (from Homer’s Iliad) famous for the odd shape of his head, had a skull like the one in figure 4.

Having read the explanation, Lorkyn annotated the woodcut to indicate that the first figure was natural (‘naturalis’) and the second one unnaturual (‘non-naturalis’). Lorkyn’s annotations in the Fabrica tend to be reading notes, supplementing the images with information gleaned from the text, or making comparisons with a comment from another book he had read. The Fabrica was not the kind of book one took into the dissection theatre – it was far too large for that. When it came to recording his own dissection, Lorkyn chose a smaller and more compact work.