Skeleton in prayer

Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Basel: ex. off. J. Oporini, 1543, p. 165, woodcut, leaf height 43 cm, N*.1.2(A).

This is the last of the three views of the skeleton, showing the dorsal view.
Vesalius used the same letters for the same bones in all the three views of the skeleton, to rationalize the legends keyed to those letters. The names Vesalius used were the ones derived from the Greek by his teachers Guinterius and Dubois. In the legend, Vesalius added the Greek equivalents as wells as the Hebrew names taken by his friend Lazaro de Frigeis from the Hebrew translation of Avicenna’s work (published in 1491). The Hebrew names appear to be garbled, perhaps because of some confusion on Lazaro’s part or because of some problems with the Hebrew fonts.

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