REMMELIN, Johann [with] SPACHER, Michel

First edition of both these works, explanations of the first editions of Remmelin’s extraordinary anatomical plates, both exceptionally rare and of great importance for the study of Remmelin’s work. “In 1613, the Augsburg engraver Lucas Kilian produced a set of three broadsheets of human anatomy that are some of the most intricate early examples of interactive prints extant. Composed of several layers of engraving, letterpress and etching that were cut, stacked, and glued together as liftable flaps, these prints allowed the viewer to dissect male and female corpses as a didactic exercise. Though primarily intended for medical students, the sheets also served curious general audiences, as they teemed with decorative and moralising addenda… They offered their audience a heady mix of allegorical iconography and anatomy made more potent by their removable organs and naked flesh. Originally published in 1613 as three separate broadsheets, it inspired two explanatory pamphlets appearing in 1615 to identify the parts of the body marked with letters on the prints. The plates reappeared in book form in 1619.” Suzanne Kerr Schmidt. ‘Printed Bodies and the Materiality of Early Modern Prints.’ The first ‘official’ edition of Remmelin’s prints appeared in 1619.

“This edition was preceded by three other printed by Stephan Michelspacher, an Augsburg printer and physician, who also produced the 1619 version. In 1613 Michelspacher printed three plates with flaps under the title Catoptrum microcosmicum without any explanatory text or elucidation of the lettering on the figures. On the Visio Prima or the first printed page, there were two sets of initials ‘I.R. Inventor’ and ‘L. K. sculptor’ and ‘Stephan Michelspacher Excudit’. The initiais are now understood to refer to Remmelin and Kilian, but they played a secondary role to Michelspacher’s more prominent name. The text was published separately in two subsequent editions also featuring Michelspacher’s name, the Elucidarius of 1614 and the Pinax microcosmographicus of 1615. In the nineteenth century, scholars suggested that Michelspacher had proceeded without Remmelin’s consent, going so far as to steal the plates .. However this version of the story was challenged convincingly by W. B Mcdaniel who showed that Michelspacher and Remmelin continued a fruitful working relationship during the period between the 1613 printing and the 1619 printing” Timothy McCall ‘Visual Cultures of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe.’ Excellent copies of these two rare first editions.