All 39 groups from the comparison reference, in the same numbered sequence. Open a group to see every source page alongside its Geminus plate, then inspect or extract a detail.
Drag to pan; use + / − to inspect. Select fragment, then draw a rectangle on either source.
Pages are fitted independently, not shown at a shared physical scale. Overlay begins at page centres; it is an exploratory view. Paper tone and colouring belong to these particular copies. An inscription absent from a plate is not necessarily absent from the book.
Drag, resize and rotate original-image fragments. Each fragment keeps its source record and crop coordinates. The opening arrangement contains six study crops from the archive.
A body has a position.
So does everything around it.
This archive begins with a comparison between anatomical images published by Andreas Vesalius in 1543 and their adaptations by Thomas Geminus in 1545. It asks what happens to our reading of the body when its surroundings change.
Geminus redrew and rearranged images from Vesalius’s works, translating woodcuts into separate copperplate engravings. Selected landscapes and inscriptions disappear; supports remain; figures from different pages are brought together.
The next act of editing belongs to this project: selecting, cutting and repositioning fragments. Each crop remains connected to its source, so that the act of extraction can be read alongside what it leaves behind.
Research and design: Tao. An independent study; not affiliated with the holding institutions. This edition contains all 39 numbered comparison groups, 39 NYPL reference images, 38 additional Wellcome scans and 105 distinct Vesalius source scans (107 source-page connections). Four groups include small figures whose sources remain partly unconfirmed. The title page and the skeleton corresponding to Fabrica p. 165 are outside this selection.
The 39 numbered groups and every listed source page are reproduced in this archive. Record numbers follow the reference PDF; groups 19, 22, 24 and 28 retain their unresolved-detail notes.
Open the supplied comparison PDFDownload the full comparison indexDe humani corporis fabrica libri septem.
Basel: Johannes Oporinus.
Universitätsbibliothek Basel, UBH AN I 15. Digitised by e-rara. The Fabrica images here reproduce this particular copy, including its colouring. The two Epitome scans are from Wellcome Collection.
Fabrica / e-rara recordEpitome / Wellcome recordCompendiosa totius anatomie delineatio.
London: John Herford.
All 39 NYPL images reproduced in the comparison reference are included. For 38 plates, a larger scan from the Wellcome Collection copy is also available through the copy selector. Each image is labelled with its actual collection. The vena cava plate currently has a NYPL reference only.
Wellcome Collection recordNYPL collection recordHistorical context on the redrawing, engraving and rearrangement of the images.
Read the exhibition essayBlack scanning borders have been removed from the displayed pages. Original scans remain linked in the source records. Paper colour and colouring are features of these copies and reproductions. They are considered separately from changes to the composition. “Scan” identifies a digital image; “p.” identifies a printed page.