Media Releases

Influential 450-year-old book to be displayed at U of T’s Fisher Library

June 2, 2014

TORONTO, ON – Dr. Vivian Nut­ton, renowned British his­to­ri­an of med­i­cine and Pro­fes­sor at the Cen­tre for the His­to­ry of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don, will speak about one of the world’s most impor­tant his­tor­i­cal med­ical texts on Tues­day, June 3 at 5:30 pm at the open­ing for the ‘Vesal­ius at 500’ exhi­bi­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Thomas Fish­er Rare Book Library.

The ‘Vesal­ius at 500’ exhi­bi­tion com­mem­o­rates the birth of pio­neer­ing anatomist Andreas Vesal­ius (1514–1564) and fea­tures a daz­zling array of over 35 ear­ly anatom­i­cal works includ­ing a rare 1555 anno­tat­ed edi­tion of Vesalius’s influ­en­tial De humani cor­poris fab­ri­ca, or the Fab­ri­ca as it is bet­ter known. The book is wide­ly regard­ed as the cor­ner­stone for the study of human anato­my. The copy of the Fab­ri­ca on dis­play at the Fish­er Library was anno­tat­ed by Vesal­ius him­self for an antic­i­pat­ed third edi­tion that was nev­er pro­duced.

The exhi­bi­tion runs until August 29, 2014 (Mon­day – Fri­day, 9 am – 5 pm). Admis­sion is free. Free guid­ed tours of the exhi­bi­tion by cura­tor Philip Old­field will be held the first Thurs­day of June, July and August begin­ning at 6 pm. A video inter­view with cura­tor Philip Old­field is avail­able online at http://go.utlib.ca/vesalius.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHAT: Open­ing lec­ture for the Vesal­ius at 500 Exhi­bi­tion with guest speak­er: Dr. Vivian Nut­ton, Pro­fes­sor, Cen­tre for the His­to­ry of Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don

WHERE: Thomas Fish­er Rare Book Library, 120 St. George Street, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

WHEN: Tues­day, June 3: 5:00 pm (remarks at 5:30 pm)

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For more infor­ma­tion or pho­tos, please con­tact:

Philip Old­field
His­to­ry of Sci­ence and Med­i­cine Librar­i­an
Thomas Fish­er Rare Book Library, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416–946-3177
philip.oldfield@utoronto.ca

Media Rela­tions
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416–978-0100
media.relations@utoronto.ca