Compendiosa / totius Anatomie delineatio, ære / exarata: per Thomam Geminum

The first anatomical treatise published in England, this volume is notable for its 41 full-page engravings by Thomas Geminus, marking the first instance in which copperplate printing was used at a significant scale in the British Isles. Geminus borrowed heavily from Andreas Vesalius’s groundbreaking 1543 works De humani corporis fabrica libri septem and De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome. In copying Vesalius’s plates, Geminus removed details such as background landscapes. It was these artistic liberties, rather than the pirating of his text, that truly upset Vesalius. Shortly after the Compendiosa’s initial appearance, Vesalius criticized his “incompetent” imitator for debasing his original illustrations.



Geminus’s impetus may have been Henry VIII’s 1540 edict allowing The Worshipful Company of Barber Surgeons access to the cadavers of four executed criminals annually for instructional dissection—a decree that created a market for just such a work.