The Epitome was published shortly after the Fabrica, and it was designed as a more affordable option for the use of students: it could be easily carried to the dissection theater or lecture room, and cost around one-sixth of the price of the Fabrica. In his dedication to Phillip II, the future King of Spain, Vesalius says: “I have made the Epitome to be as it were a gateway (semita) beside the larger book, and as an index of what is set forth in it.”
The Epitome
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De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1543 The Lewis Stephen Pilcher Collection