The _Tabulae Anatomicae_ were in the form of _Fliegende Blätter_, or
loose leaves, and consisted of six plates which are now among the rarest
of medical works. They bore the following title:
_Tabulae Anatomicae. Imprimebat Venetiis B(ernardinus).
Vitalis Venetus sumptibus Joannis Stephani
Calcarensis Prostrant verò in officina
D. Bernardini. a. 1538._
In the preface Vesalius says that no one can learn either botany or
anatomy from figures alone, but illustrations are a valuable means
toward the imparting of knowledge. In publishing these plates he hopes
to benefit those persons who had attended his public dissections. Not a
line in these pictures is unnatural; all has been reproduced just as he
had shown in his demonstrations. He gives due credit to van Calcar, the
artist who made the drawings of the three skeletons. The other pictures
were made by the author himself.