The Anatomy of the Human Body: Illustrated by One Hundred & Fifty Eight Plates

We bring you some images from the rare book collection to kick off your October:

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. I.

I like to think of it as “Dancing Skeletons.” Doesn’t it look as though they’re mid-twirl?

Andrew Fyfe (1754-1824) was a Scottish anatomy professor at Edinburgh University where he lectured and performed dissections. He later went on to create anatomy textbooks and engravings. The above volume, The Anatomy of the Human Body: Illustrated in One Hundred & Fifty Eight Plates, was published after Fyfe’s death in 1830. It’s comprised solely of detailed engravings of human anatomy.

This book, along with 1,316 others, were digitized during the UCSF Google Books Project and is now available in full on HathtiTrust.

A few more– the thoracic cavity,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. XVII.

teeth and jaw,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, teeth.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. LXXII.

nerves and muscles on the neck and head,

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, nerves.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. CV.

the brain,

IMG_0402_sm

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. LII.

and last but not least, a child skeleton and skulls on books. Now, who is ready for Halloween?

Fyfe, Andrew, The anatomy of the human body... 1830, child skeleton.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. XXVII.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body... 1830, Tab. IX.

Fyfe, Andrew, The Anatomy of the Human Body… 1830, Tab. IX.

Prosper Alpini’s De Plantis Exoticis

One of the many volumes in the UCSF Special Collections is a first edition of De Plantis Exoticis, written by Prosper Alpini and first published in 1627. Take a look at the engraved title page below:

Alpini, Prospero, De Plantis Exoticis

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis, title page

De Plantis Exoticis, edited posthumously by Aplini’s son, builds on an earlier work of the author’s, De Plantis Aegypti liber1592. Exoticis boasts 145 beautiful, full-page engravings of plants, comprising nearly half of the entire volume.

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis

Alpini was born in the Republic of Venice in 1553 and died at the age of 63 in 1617. During his career he was a personal physician and a professor of botany at Padua. Alpini was the first to publish descriptions of many plants that were unknown to other botanists at the time. Much of this information was gathered during his travels to Crete, other Greek islands, and Egypt.

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis, p. 46

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis, p. 46

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis, p. 12-125

Alpini, Prosper, De Plantis Exoticis, p. 124-125