Of the numerous editions of the _Fabrica_ there are three which are highly prized, namely, the first one, 1543; the second, issued in 1555, containing eight hundred and twenty-four pages, with many changes in the text; and the 1725 edition of the collected writings of Vesalius. The last named is a huge volume which was published at Leyden under the supervision of Boerhaave and Albinus, with the illustrations cut in copper by Jan Wandelaar[27]. It contains the _Fabrica_, the _Epitome_, the _Epistola de Radicis Chynae_, various anatomical treatises of a controversial character, and the _Chirurgia Magna_ which has been wrongly attributed to Vesalius. Morley says of this book:—“After his death a great work on surgery appeared, in seven books, signed with his name, and commonly included among his writings. There is reason, however, to believe that his name was stolen to give value to the book, which was compiled and published by a Venetian, Prosper Bogarucci, a literary crow, who fed himself upon the dead man’s reputation”. [Illustration: Ornamental block] CHAPTER FOURTEENTH The Court Physician [Illustration: Illuminated capital] Vesalius, having finished the _Fabrica_, intended to write a work on the practice of medicine which should be based on pathology. He makes mention of this in the preface of the _Fabrica_, and in numerous places in the body of the book he describes the pathologic appearances which he found in dissection. Returning to Padua after a year’s absence, he found that the University for which he had strenuously labored was a very hotbed of opposition. His former pupil and friend, Realdus Columbus, who was now lecturing on anatomy at Padua, had turned against him. How deeply Vesalius was wounded by the man whom he had made, can be appreciated only by those who have been placed in similar circumstances. The controversy between Columbus and Vesalius was of a bitter and personal character.