Picturing the Book of Nature: Image, Text, and Argument in Sixteenth-Century Human Anatomy and Medical Botany

350 Pages·2016·10.96 MB·English

by  Sachiko Kusukawa

picturing the book of nature
sachiko kusukawa
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
picturing
the book of nature
Image, Text, and Argument
in Sixteenth-Century Human Anatomy
and Medical Botany
Sachiko kuSukawa is a fellow in the history and philosophy of science at
Trinity College, Cambridge.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in China
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-46529-6 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-46529-2 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kusukawa, Sachiko.
Picturing the book of nature : image, text, and argument in sixteenth-century
human anatomy and medical botany / Sachiko Kusukawa.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-46529-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-46529-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Natural history illustration—Europe—History—16th century. 2. Botanical
illustration—Europe—History—16th century. 3. Medical illustration—History—
16th century. 4. Illustrated books—Europe—History—16th century. 5. Art and
science—History—16th century. I. Title.
QH46.5K87 2011
508.022’2—dc23
2011018307
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of
Paper).
For Keith M. Ball

contents
’
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations xiii
Introduction 1
Part 1 Printing Pictures 26
1 Techniques and Craftsmen 28
2 Publishers’ Calculations 48
3 Copying and Coloring 62
4 Control 82
Part 2 Picturing Medicinal Plants 98
5 Accidents and Arguments:
Fuchs’s De Historia Stirpium 100
6 Arguments over Pictures:
Reactions to Fuchs’s De Historia Stirpium 124
7 Gessner and the Making of the Historia Plantarum 138
8 The Authority of Pictures:
Gessner, Mattioli, and Jamnitzer 162
vii
viii Contents
Part 3 Picturing HuMan anatoMy 178
9 Vesalius and the Bloodletting Controversy 180
10 The Canon of the Human Body:
Vesalius’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica 198
11 Text, Image, Body, and the Book 228
Epilogue 249
Notes 259
Bibliography 293
Index 325
acknowledgments
’
Nothing can replace the experience and knowledge obtained from read-
ing and handling rare books firsthand. This book could not have been
written without the libraries and librarians who allowed me generous ac-
cess to these books. I have spent many happy hours in the Munby Rare
Books Room at Cambridge University Library, which for the last twenty
years has remained an outstanding place to work because of the extraor-
dinary willingness of its staff to help readers unfailingly, consistently, and
patiently. I thank Brian Jenkins, Nicola Thwaite, Dr. Jill Whitelock, Nick
Smith, Dr. J. J. Hall, Claire Welford, Dr. Emily Dourish, Helen Hills, Stella
Clarke, Will Hale, Onesimus Ngundu, Sonia Morcillo-Garcia, and Sophie
Connor. At my other base, the Wren Library, Trinity College, I received
cheerful and efficient assistance from Joanna Ball, Sandy Paul, Jonathan
Smith, John Marais, Andrew Lambert, Sarah Nelson, Adam Green, Fran-
ces Wetherell, and Bernadette Scully. For their kind help I also wish to
thank Dr. Urs Leu at the Zentralbibliothek Zurich; Sigrid Kohlmann at
Erlangen University Library; Ueli Dill at the Universitätsbibliothek Basel;
Jan Brookes, Jo Pipe, and John Gandy at Blickling Hall; Mark Purcell of
National Trust Libraries; and the staff of the Rare Books Collection, Well-
come Library.
ix