title: Annibal Caro's after-dinner speech (1536) and the question of Titian as Vesalius's illustrator.
abstract: Putative textual proof for Titian's central involvement in producing illustrations for Vesalius's anatomy book "De fabrica" (1543) requires reexamination. On the basis of orthographic, literary, and historical evidence, a phrase in Annibal Caro's after-dinner speech, here dated to 1536, is shown instead to refer ironically to a surgeon's notorious execution in 1517. "Anatomia" was a word in the satirical as well as the medical lexicon. It is important to understand the satirical tone of Caro's speech about a priapic statuette. Delivered during Carnival to the Roman Academy of Virtue, the speech respects neither antiquities nor artists like Michelangelo in its obscene humor.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kornell
mesh_terms: D054814:Anatomists / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D000715:Anatomy / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D000846:Anniversaries and Special Events; D001154:Art / Q000266:history; D001878:Books, Illustrated / Q000266:history; D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D007558:Italy / Q000208:ethnology; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D019365:Metaphor; D013561:Symbolism; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology