The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels by J. B. DeC. M. Saunders;Charles D. O'MalleyReview by: M. F. Ashley MontaguIsis, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Apr., 1951), p. 53Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226670 .

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Reviews 53

Chapter 5I on Ceraunia is commented upon at some length on p. 297-302; the word ceraunia (pertaining to thunder and lightning) was used to designate meteoric stones and prehistoric im- plements.

The author of this valuable book had a long and rich experience as a geologist and prospec- tor. After 4 years with the U. S. Geological Survey, he was the technical head of an expedi- tion to survey the Forminiere mineral conces- sions in the Belgian Congo; the Belgian Congo- Angola diamond field, one of the largest in the world, was an outgrowth of this expedition. He produced the first accurate topographic and geologic map of the Death Valley in S.E. Cali- fornia. His book is an encyclopaedia of ancient lore on precious stones; it is a great pity that he did not live long enough to complete its pub- lication, for the index is very insufficient.

GEORGE SARTON

J. B. DEC. M. SAUNDERS and CHARLES D. O'MALLEY: The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels. 252

pp. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1950.

$10.00.

This is in every way a beautiful volume. The authors, publishers, designers, printers, and bind- ers, are to be warmly congratulated upon its publication. Vesalius, himself having set the highest standard of excellence in everything con- nected with his immortal Fabrica, has been for- tunate this way in his confraternity of admiring editors and annotators. During the last twenty- five years there have appeared such works as Spielmann's The Iconography of Andreas Vesa- lius (London: John Bale, 1925), the sumptuous volume of mlustrations - mostly from the orig- inal wood blocks - from the Fabrica published by the Library of the University of Munich and the New York Academy of Medicine in i934, (the wood blocks were destroyed in an air raid during World War II), Harvey Cushing's superb Bio-Bibliography of Andreas Vesalius issued by Schuman in I943 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Fabrica, and from the same publisher came the Sarton Festschrift in I946 containing Professors Saun- ders and O'Malley's English edition of the Bloodletting Letter (republished separately by Schuman in the same year), in the same year there was also published Singer and Rabin's fine A Prelude to Modern Science (Cambridge Uni- versity Press, I946), while only last year there appeared an admirable edition of the Epitome in the translation of Professor L. R. Lind (Macmillan, 1949). The present volume in every way maintains the high standards of these others.

"The purpose of the present work," write the authors, "is to make available to the general reader, the student of art, of science and of medicine, the illustrations from the works of Andreas Vesalius through the medium of which

they may gain some insight into this achieve- ment of science and art."

Professors Saunders and O'Malley's volume is a medium quarto (page size 9" x Ie"). The frontispiece reproduces the portrait of Vesalius of the first edition of the Fabrica. The ilustra- tions are but slightly reduced in size and are consummately well reproduced. They all look as if they were printed from the original wood blocks which, of course, they were not. In addi- tion to the illustrations from the Fabrica the illustrations are reproduced from the Bloodlet- ting Letter, here called the Venesection Letter (I539), and the Tabluae Sex (1538). The Stock- holm line and wash drawing of the first stage of the title-page of the Fabrica is reproduced, as are the Glasgow, the Crummer-Bodman sepia, and a reversed print from the original wood block of the title page for the purposes of com- parison.

The Introduction by Professors Saunders and O'Malley (pp. 9-40) is surely the best brief account of Vesalius and his work in the English language. The discussion of the authorship of the illustrations is particularly good. The leg- ends accompanying each of the original illustra- tions are translated and printed in italics to dis- tinguish them from the authors' always valuable explanatory notes. The index to the letters de- noting the various structures shown in the illus- trations has been wisely omitted on the ground that the archaic terminology would have re- quired such lengthy explanation as greatly to have increased the bulk of the volume. The Introduction and the explanatory notes are full of original and enlightening observations which will be especially useful to the student of Vesa- lius. An admirable book.

It is a pleasure to add that the book has been selected by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1950.

M. F. ASHLEY MONTAGU Rutgers University

JOHN C. LAPP: The Universe of Pontus de Tyard. A critical edition of L'Univers, with Introduction and Notes. Ix+20I pp. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, I950. $3.00.

Professor Lapp's investigations of the poetry of the French Renaissance have led to his edit- ing of two of the more interesting of the six philosophical discours of Pontus de Tyard. Born in I52I in Burgundy, this poet took some part in the flurry of creative activity which accom- panied the first years of Henri II, and turned with the mid-century to prose dialogues on esthetic theory and natural science as then con- ceived. He brought out in succession a transla- tion of Leo Hebraeus On Love, (1551), two dialogues on the theory of poetry and music, an erudite Discours du Temps on the calendar (I556), and in I557 the present dialogues, Le Premier et le Second Curieux, under the single title, L'Univers. This creative period came to a

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