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W. Bruce Fye History of Medicine Library: Did You Know?

Did you know

[Vesalius, Andreas].  Leveling, Heinrich Palmatius von, 1742-1798.  Heinrich Palmaz Leveling ... Anatomische Erklarung der Original-Figuren von Andreas Vesal, samt einer Anwendung der Winslowischen Zergliederungslehre in sieben Buchern.  Ingolstadt: Zu finden bey Anton Attenkhouer, 1783.

The original wood-blocks for both the original Fabrica and Epitome were obtained by the chief physician of Bavaria, Rath von Woltter somewhere around 1744.  These blocks were entrusted to Leveling who was assigned the task of issuing a new edition using these blocks.  Leveling apparently found the blocks in excellent condition and they were not used again until the Bremer Press edition of 1934 issued by the New York Academy of Medicine.  The blocks were subsequently destroyed in the bombing of Munich during World War II. 

This work is the first to be published in a vernacular and was issued to give Bavarian surgeons a useful anatomical textbook.  In the preface, Leveling notes this work was issued not for profit but for the purposes of education.  He makes a strong plea for the use of German terminology in which this work was published.