Libro de la Anothomia del Hombre

A testimony to the efforts of Renaissance scholars who sought to elevate Castilian as a scientific language as opposed to traditional Latin: the Libro de la Anothomia del Hombre. Printed in 1551, the Spanish codex is adorned with 13 detailed woodcuts of the human body: three for the muscular system, two for the circulatory system, two for the nervous system, one for the seminal vesicles, one for the organs, four for the bones, and two prints for the bones of the hand. Along with the instructive text printed in Gothic and Roman script, these detailed diagrams help make the codex a practical anatomical handbook. It was written by Bernardino Montaña de Monserrate (ca. 1480–1558), the personal physician of Emperor Charles V (1500–58) and professor at the Universidad de Valladolid, who insists in the text that the information therein is “very useful and necessary for doctors and surgeons who want to be perfect in their art and good to other discreet men who don't know about nature's secrets”. He continues “this book is about how a man is created, the way he is conceived and is born, and the reasons why he necessarily dies, and about a dream of Don Luis Hurtado de Mendoça, Marqués de Mondéjar”. This wonderful and comprehensive codex represents a cornerstone of modern science as well as a testament to fine Spanish book printing during the 16th century.