Historical Anatomies on the Web map Introduction Browse Titles Titles to be Added Historical Anatomies Home History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

Ketham, Johannes de. Fasiculo de medicina. (Venice: Zuane & Gregorio di Gregorii, 1494).

Johannes de Ketham was a German physician living in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. Little is known about him, but he has been identified by many as a physician practicing in Vienna in 1460 named Johannes von Kirchheim.

Fasiculo de medicina is a translation into Italian by Sebastiano Manilio of Ketham's monumental Fasciculus medicinae, which was first published in Venice in 1491. Fasciculus medicinae was the first printed book to contain anatomical illustrations. The Italian translation contains illustrations made from new woodcuts which are superior in quality than the older, Latin edition, as well as some new illustrations and new text. The text itself is actually a collection of short medical treatises edited by Ketham, many of which are from the medieval period.

Further Reading:

Choulant, L. History and bibliography of anatomic illustration. Trans. and annotated by Mortimer Frank. (New York: Hafner, 1962). Pp. 115-119.

Ketham, J. de. The Fasciculus Medicinae of Johannes de Ketham, Alemanus : facsimile of the first (Venetian) edition of 1491. With English translation by Luke Demaitre ; commentary by Karl Sudhoff ; trans. and adapted by Charles Singer. (Birmingham, Ala.: The Classics of Medicine Library, 1988).

Morton’s Medical Bibliography (Garrison and Morton). Ed. By Jeremy Norman. Fifth ed. (Aldershot, Hants, England : Scolar Press ; Brookfield, Vt., USA : Gower Pub. Co., 1991). No. 363.1.