A human skeleton, seen from the front, with labels giving the latin names of the bones. Photograph after a woodcut after Hans Wechtlin, 1517.

1900-1999

1 photograph : photoprint ; image 25.5 x 19.2 cm

Ein contrafacter todt mit seinen bainen fugen undglidern un gewerben auf beuelh loblicher gedechttnus hertzog Albrechts Bischoff zü Strassburg durch maister Niclaus byldhauwer zü Zaberen warlich in stayn abgehawen un<d> nach anzaig rechter gewysser Anatomey mit sein lanitischen namen verficiert. Lettering continues with the names of the bones and verses below the image concerning death. Photograph bears negative number: A/36010-2

Hans von Gersdorff, Feldbuch der wundarznei, with a foreword by J. Steudel, facsimile reprint of the 1517 ed., Darmstadt 1967

R. Herrlinger, History of medical illustration from antiquity to A.D. 1600, tr. G. Fulton Smith, Nijkerk 1970, p. 59, fig. 79

A. Carlino, "'Knowe thyself'. Anatomical figures in early modern Europe," Res, vol. xxvii, Spring 1995, pp. 58-61, fig. 10

L. Crummer, "Early anatomical fugitive sheets," Annals of Medical History, v, no. 3, 1923, p. 203

L. Choulant, History and bibliography of anatomic illustration, tr. and ed. M. Frank, Chicago 1920, revd ed. 1945, pp. 130; 162-165

Philadelphia Museum of Art: Ars medica. Art, medicine and the human condition, exh. cat., D. R. Karp, ed., 1985, no. 3, p. 154

Wellcome Collection 26751i

Originally published as fugitive sheets by Joahnnes Schott, this plate of a skeleton and another of a visceral figure, both dated 1517, were folded and inserted into Gersdorff's Feldtbuch der wundarznei published in Strassburg by Schott in the same year. Both sheets were also included in Lorenz Fries's Spiegel der artzny published in Strassburg in 1518 (Choulant pp. 130; 162-165). This photograph is of a variant of the skeleton plate in the British Museum, cited by Crummer (p. 203), without the date of 1517 that appears at the top left of the original nor Schott's initial's next to the verses and with changes to the lettering. For the original, see the folded plate in the Darmstadt 1967 facsimile reprint of Gersdorff Feldtbuch der wundarznei