STOLEN AND LOST COPIES OF VESALIUS’S FABRICA

Abstract

Thefts and losses of precious books are not rare. Here we report several incidents concerning Vesalius’s Fabrica: the fire of the University Library of Leuven in Belgium, the fate of the collection of the Leopoldina Library of Halle in Germany, the thefts from the Crerar Library in Chicago and in Christ Church College in Oxford, the disappearance of an exceptionally beautiful ‘Royal’ copy from the Castle of Argenteuil (Belgium), and other Fabrica’s missing at the Franeker Library in the Netherlands and at the Library of Oradea in West Romania. Finally the means of protecting precious book collections are discussed in short as well as the importance of book identification.