Walther Hermann Ryff, Omnium humani corporis partium descriptio seu ut vocant anatomia, Strasbourg: ex officina libraria Balthassari Pistoris et Balthassar Beck, 1541, C[1r], woodcut, leaf height, 30.8 cm N*.3.17(B).

In the Anatomical tables (1538), Vesalius had the veins alone of the entire body represented, roughly in the shape of the human body with arms stretched out. Ryff copied them and placed them onto a seated human body. The caption above (‘A description of the vena cava, jecoria, koile, ha-orti, by which the blood, nutriment of all parts, is spread throughout the entire body’) was copied verbatim from Vesalius, as were the keys on the vessels. The names corresponding to the keys, however, were not copied, which makes this image of limited didactic use.

In the Fabrica, Vesalius complained about this plagiarism, and in particular cautioned against superimposing his figure of veins onto a human body, which is what Ryff had done here. Vesalius warned that this made the veins look as if they were distributed only on the surface of the body.