Montpellier surgeon Barthélémy Cabrol (1529-1603) first published his Alphabet 
anatomic in 1594. A series of tables that graphically represented the parts of the body, it was immensely popular, with eleven editions in the seventeenth century as well as translations into Latin and Dutch; the Dutch translation in 1633 was by Descartes’s friend and correspondent Vopiscus Fortunatus Plemp.
The front matter to Alphabet anatomic included a dedication to the king, several prefaces, and a number of odes and sonnets, in French and Latin, to Cabrol and his skill in dissection. One of them praised his skill in uncovering the skeleton. (Thanks to Marc Schachter for help with the translation.)
Read more, including the the fully translated sonnet, at
Anita Guerrini’s blog ‘Anatomia Anamalia.’
