De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem

Institutional-grade rarity: household copies are almost always reproductions. The most important of these is Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis Icones Anatomicae (Munich: The Bremer Press for the New York Academy of Medicine and the University of Munich Library, 1934, actually issued 1935), a limited large-format printing taken from the surviving original woodblocks then in Munich — the last use of those blocks, which were destroyed in the Second World War bombing of Munich. Icones sheets are genuine woodblock impressions and are frequently mistaken for 1543 leaves, but the volume is a 20th-century book. Also common: the 1964 and later photographic facsimiles, plate-only portfolios, framed single leaves broken out of later editions, and modern translations. A 1543 must show the June 1543 Oporinus colophon, the staff-bearing skeleton title block, and letterpress Latin text on 16th-century paper.