32 BIOLOGY AXD ITS MAKERS 



buildings, etc. The employment of a background even in 

 portrait-painting was not uncommon in the same century, 

 as in Leonardo da Vinci's well-known Mona Lisa, with its 

 suggestive perspective of water, rocks, etc. 



Fig. 5 will give an idea on a small scale of one of the plates 

 illustrating the work of Vesalius. The plates in the original 

 are of folio size, and represent a colossal figure in the fore- 

 ground, with a background showing between the limbs and 

 at the sides of the figure. There is considerable variety as 

 regards the background, no two plates being alike. 



Also, in delineating the skeleton, the artist has given to 

 it an artistic pose, as is shown in Fig. 6, but nevertheless the 

 bones are well drawn. No plates of equal merit had ap- 

 peared before these; in fact, they are the earliest generally 

 known drawings in anatomy, although woodcuts represent- 

 ing anatomical figures were published as early as 1491 by 

 John Ketham. Ketham's figures showed only externals 

 and preparations for opening the body, but rude woodcuts 

 representing internal anatomy and the human skeleton had 

 been published notably by Magnus Hundt, 1501; Phrysen, 

 1518; and Bcrengarius, 1521 and 1523. Leonardo da Vinci 

 and other artists had also executed anatomical drawings 

 before the time of Vesalius. 



Previous to the publication of the complete work, Vesalius, 

 in 1538, had published six tables of anatomy, and, in 1555, 

 he brought out a new edition of the Fabrica, with slight 

 additions, especially in reference to physiology, which will be 

 adverted to in the chapter on Harvey. 



In the original edition of 1543 the illustrations are not 

 collected in the form of plates, but are distributed through 

 the text, the larger ones making full-page (folio) illustrations. 

 In this edition also the chapters are introduced with an initial 

 letter showing curious anatomical figures in miniature, some 

 of which are shown in Fig. 7. 



