Volcher Coiter, Externarum et internarum principalium humani corporis partium tabulae, Nuremberg: in off. Theodorici Gerlatzeni, 1573, fig. 3, plate size 35 x 20 cm, N*.3.17 (B), Thomas Lorkyn’s (c. 1528-1591) copy.

Volcher Coiter (1534-1576) was born in Groningen and studied at several universities, including Padua, where he was taught by Gabriele Fallopio, and Bologna, where he studied with Ulisse Aldrovandi. He eventually settled in Nuremberg as city physician. Coiter published a description of the human body in tabulated form, to which several engravings were added. Coiter admired Vesalius for perfecting the art of anatomy with amazing talent. It is not surprising to find him copying a figure of the skeleton from the Fabrica. ‘VCD’ (Volcher Coiter delineavit) at the bottom left corner means that Coiter had done the drawing for this engraving. He changed the spade into a scythe, and he added his own verse on the certainty of death that was conquered by Christ’s sacrifice.