A human skeleton, seen from the front, resting the bones of his left forearm on a spade handle, after Vesalius. Engraving 1769, after Prevost, 1762, after a woodcut, 1543.

[London] : [J. Cooke], [1769]

1 print : engraving ; platemark 32.6 x 20.5 cm

To face skeleton. Engraved for the new royal & universal dictionary of arts & sciences. Bears plate no. : LXXXII

J.B. de C.M. Saunders and C.D. O'Malley, The illustrations from the works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Cleveland and New York 1950, p. 84, pl. 21

Wellcome Collection 36316i

Reverses the first anatomy plate to D. Diderot and J. le R. d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers, Paris 1762, vol. 18, pl. 1, engraved by Prevost, which in turn copied in reverse the original woodcut published as the first skeleton plate to Andreas Vesalius De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, published in Basel in 1543. In the Diderot and d'Alembert plate, the position of the skull was altered so that it no longer tilted back but looks down slightly to its right. The mountain range of the Vesalian plate was abandoned in favour of a gentler landscape with a cross of wood marking a grave