ESTIENNE (Charles). De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres. Paris, Simon Colines, 1545. In-folio, brown calf, central finial and double border of friezes and cold fillets, ribbed spine with cold fillets (Binding of the period) 12 f. n. ch. (title, preface index), 379 pp. (misquoted 375), woodcut illustrations in the text. First edition of one of the most important anatomical treatises of the Renaissance. Although it appeared two years after the Fabrica de Vesalius, the other monument of the genre, Estienne's work is thought to be the origin of the Vesalius. Charles Estienne, son of Henri, had studied medicine at the Faculty of Paris. He had the work printed on his father's presses by his father-in-law S. de Colines, who had taken over from him. We know from the signatures on Jollat's plates that he began work on the illustrations for the volume in the early 1530s (1530-31-32). The author tells us in the preface that the edition was interrupted in 1539 because of a lawsuit, possibly brought by the surgeon Stéphane de La Rivière, for plagiarism, which would explain why his name appears on the title as co-author. This is the explanation given by F. Schreiber, who suggests that Vesalius may have become acquainted with the work of Estienne, whom he had studied with in the class of J. Sylvius, during his stay in Paris in 1533-36. Other authors see in Estienne's work the influence of Vesalius (see M. Roth or H. Cushing). We will refrain from taking sides in this controversy between Stephanists and Vesalians. "One of the finest woodcut books of the French Renaissance", says Fred Schreiber, an enthusiasm shared by Norman. In addition to the remarkable typographical ornamentation, the book is illustrated with Colines' "Tempus I" mark on the title, 62 full-page illustrations and 101 figures in the text. One of the full-page plates is signed S. R. (Stéphane Rivière, previously mentioned) and seven are signed Jean Jollat, either with his name or with his Mercure mark. 7 plates, 6 signed Jollat and 1 unsigned, bear a Lorraine cross, a mark associated with the workshop of G. Tory, while other plates bear sifted initials also known from the productions of the master of the Champ Fleuri. Among the innovations that anatomical knowledge owes to this work, it contains the first known representation of the entire external nervous system and the vascular network, as well as the first detailed representation of a brain dissection. Interesting handwritten bookplate on a label pasted on the last endpaper by the second owner of the volume who had it bound: "Achepté de Jaques Daléchamp en l'an 1548 en blan 6 florins et pour le reliage 15 fr qui monte le tout à 7 florins 3 fr. Jaques **". The learned humanist Jacques Daléchamp (Caen 1513 - Lyon 1588), known for his work as a botanist, was, among other things, a translator of Galen. The second Jacques had it set in a Venetian-style binding with a double frieze of medallion portraits, grotesques and various cold ornaments, possibly a Lyon binding. A fine copy with wide margins in its first binding. Some spotting in the margins, a few cracks sometimes previously repaired, lack of paper in the lower margin of f. S7, none of these defects affecting the text or plates. Minor worm damage on a few leaves in the inner margin of the first book with slight damage to the text. Norman, 728 - Renouard, 409-410 - Herrlinger, Hist. of Medic. illustration, p. 87-101 - Garrison & Morton, 378 - Schreiber, Simon de Colines, n°222 - M. Roth, A. Vesalius, 209-212 - H. Cushing, A bio-bibliography of A. Vesalius, 33-39.