On the Fabric of the Human Body by Andreas Vesalius. Translated by William Frank Richardson in collaboration with John Burd Carman.
Book I: The Bones and Cartilages by Norman Anatomy, $225, pp 416. ISBN 0 930405 73 0.
Book II: The Ligaments and Muscles by Norman Anatomy, $250, pp 492. ISBN 0 930405 75 7. Rating: ★★★★
Ease of communication is the touchstone in the fabric of our present lively society. Vesalius possessed this virtue to a consummate degree. By the close integration of text, commentary, and illustration, he gave the renaissance world a definitive anatomical thesis. It proclaimed the science of anatomy, based on precise observation, and it revised and displaced the foundations of the subject set by Galen (AD 130-c200), whose dogma had been virtually unchallenged for over 1000 years.
Vesalius was 28 years old when he completed On the Fabric of the Human Body in 1543. This was an immense task both in its scope and philosophical intention. In the renaissance, that ag e of ferment, Leonardo had already produced astonishing artistic anatomical studies, correct in perspective, detail, form, and aesthetics. Michelangelo had just finished The Last Judgement on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel. Dürer and Grünewald had established mastership in engraving and the woodcut. The architecture of contrapuntal music was gloriously celebrated by Palestrina in Rome, Lassus in Munich, and Byrd in London. The time was ripe. 
Vesalius, as dissector and scientist, turned anatomy into a completely objective science, the basis of which was the macroscopic study of the human body and the interrelationship of its parts. He was systematic and comprehensive. His descriptions were based on the human body and were not derivative. He portrayed anatomy in explicit and economical language as surely as his contemporary Copernicus outlined the physical cosmology of the known universe.
Vesalius wrote, in book I of On the Fabric of the Human Body: “It seems to me that the words inadequate and superficial could with justice be applied to the anatomical knowledge of those who merely handed on to posterity the description of Galen (which in some respects was simply wrong and in many others referred to apes and dogs, not to humans) as if they had actually seen these things in the human body. They were not ashamed to act as mere copyists.”
This renaissance classic is finely translated with notes by Richardson and Carman. The volumes are beautifully textured, and the illustrations stand out as fine, three dimensional engravings and woodcuts essential to the text, entrancing to the eye, and enhancing our perceptual neural connections. This monumental task of Vesalius is now available in admirable English translation for all to read. This moves it from the rare book section of well-endowed libraries and from a language which has been unreadable except to scholars to your own study or library. This is to be enjoyed on a long sunny afternoon or a late evening. It is a primary source and can be studied for historical enrichment and for insight into the craft and science of medicine.
In translation, form, and content this is a substantial and graceful work that tempts the mind and sits easily and without reservation; best opened on a polished mahogany table.