De humani corporis fabrica

Basel, June 1543

Johannes Oporinus's Basel press issued Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica libri septem in June 1543. The colophon specifies the month but gives no day.

The publication combined Vesalius's anatomical text with an unusually extensive program of woodcut illustrations based on dissections he conducted while professor of anatomy and surgery at Padua.

Blocks carried over the Alps

The woodblocks had been cut, probably in Venice, then packed and transported across the Alps to Oporinus in Basel.

The identities of the artists remain disputed. The National Library of Medicine describes multiple possible artists and treats Jan Steven van Calcar's role as a theory rather than an established fact.

Seven books, one volume

The Fabrica presented human anatomy in seven books within one large volume — not seven separately published volumes — and drew direct attention to errors Vesalius found by comparing ancient anatomical claims with his own dissections.

He challenged numerous Galenic anatomical claims without discarding the entire Galenic physiological framework.

The atlas and its shorter companion, the Epitome, entered circulation from the same press; the record preserves no single launch day and no overnight scientific conversion.