Flesh & Bone: Illustrations of anatomy

To complement the exhibition More-than-Human Wellbeing in the Level 5 Exhibition space, this rare book display featured anatomical illustrations from the 15th to 18th centuries.

When:

22 May - 18 August 2023

Where:

Levels 2 - 5 Main Library

The illustrations contained in this exhibition, made from direct observation, depict the medical learnings of leading physicians, surgeons, and scholars of the time, including Italian physician Jacopo Berengario da Carpi (c.1460 - c.1530), Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564) who is known as the founder of human anatomy, and British surgeons William Cheselden (1688 - 1752) and Henry Gray (1827 - 1861). The plates portray the internal skeletal, muscular, and cardiovascular human body systems.

Highlights included:

A reprint of William Cheselden's large-format osteological atlas Osteographia, or, The anatomy of bones (1733), which renders every bone in the human body with precision and accuracy.
Plates printed by Yale Medical Library of Andreas Vesalius's seminal book De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) depicting muscular bodies with their skin removed.
The 9th edition of Henry Gray's Anatomy : descriptive and surgical (1880). The current edition is titled Gray's Anatomy, also the name of a popular long-running television drama.

Top image: Detail of a copperplate engraving by Jacob Schijnvoet in Osteographia, or, The anatomy of bones (1733, reprinted 1968) by William Cheselden. Printed in Philadelphia by Saunders. MBVF 611.71/4

Accessibility: UNSW Main Library is wheelchair accessible and the exhibition included large-text artwork labels.