A skeleton seen from the front, resting the bones of the right forearm on a spade and holding a skull aloft in its left hand. On the left is an illustration of the sacrum and on the right, a skull in profile, with further bones to be seen at the skeleton's feet. Photograph of a woodcut, c. 1590.

1 photograph ; image 26.8 x 15.2 cm

Seu compages ossium humani corporis parte anteriore expressa. ...

L. Crummer, "Early anatomical fugitive sheets," Annals of Medical History, 5, no. 3, 1923, pp. 199-200; 203

J. G. de Lint, "Fugitive anatomical sheets," Janus, 28, 1928, pp. 82-83, fig. 3

Wellcome Collection 26821i

This fugitive sheet was in the collection of J. G. de Lint, who attributed it to the Wittenberg publisher, Bartholomeus Schoenborn (Schönbornio) and dated it to c. 1590. The skeleton is based on one from Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (Basel 1543). It differs in the position of the raised left arm, which holds a skull seen from below. In addition, the skull of the Vesalian skeleton is tilted back so as to display the cervical vertebrae, whereas this gesture has not been adopted in the fugitive sheet in which the skull is seen full-on and with closed jaws. The subsidiary illustrations of the sacrum at the top left, the skull in profile at the lower right and separate bones, such as the lower mandible (IIII) and teeth (VI) all come from Vesalius. The Wellcome Library has an earlier edition of this fugitive sheet published in Wittenberg by S. Groneberg in 1573 (EPB no. 287)