Provenance Evidence from Vesalius's De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543 and 1555) and De Humani Corporis Fabrica Librorum Epitome (1543) in the British Library and University College London

This article looks at the 1543 and 1555 copies of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica in the British Library and University College London. The texts were examined for provenance information, looking at copy-specific evidence to investigate the ownership history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. A wide range of provenance methods were explored to extract relevant information on use, readership, and ownership, considering how far these texts were used as practical medical textbooks, especially after the rise of book collecting in the eighteenth century. The collection habits of notable figures such as Sir Hans Sloane and Joseph Smith are considered through their ownership of medical texts. A previously unrecorded book stamp is also identified. This case study supports recent census research on Vesalius texts, suggesting that its readership was varied, and was not limited to an elite audience merely for display purposes.