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| frz. "planches anatomiques à découpis mobiles en superposition |
The two-dimensional representation of the human anatomy remained unsatisfactory. This circumstance tried to remedy the "layered folding pictures" of the 16th century.
From simple "before-after" images of the early sixteenth century, in which the transience of human endeavor was portrayed in a blatantly vivid manner, resourceful publishers developed the genre of the anatomical layered image. In pseudo-three-dimensional fashion, they reproduced the different stages of the situs in different, small printed sheets, as they presented one after the other for the preparing anatomist, and could be unfolded in the manner of a "thumb cinema". Presumably, the publishers reacted to the development of anatomy at universities, which had begun to make autopsies on humans.
The anatomical folding pictures were extremely successful. Since they were printed on loose paper, they felt like many early skeletal figures or Aderlasstafeln: they were worn and ended up sooner or later in the wastebasket. Accordingly, the number of surviving copies is very low. The situation improved when the folding method was added to books. Folding pictures, movable Pictures in books probably first appeared in anatomical works. Thus, the method was adopted in the anatomical textbook "Ophthalmologia, Das ist Augenendienst" by Georg Bartisch (Dresden 1583): from the apex perspective, the reader was able to contrast the stacked woodcuts from the scalp, skull and layers of the brain to the eyeballs.
The folding pictures were not accessible to a broad public until the Belle Époque, with the folk - healing books by Friedrich Eduard Bilz (1842-1922) "The New Natural Remedies" of 1888 and "The New Healing Method" by his pupil Moritz Platen, the teacher and director of the Bilz's hospital in Dresden-Radebeul was as well as director of the Naturheilanstalt Bad Ottenstein to Schwarzenberg in Saxony. The first two-volume edition was a single folding figure of the human body attached, late editions of the now four-volume work contained 10 models, including 1 model of the male body in 8 partially folded and hinged panels, 1 model of the female body also in 8 partially folded and foldable panels, (this also with representation of the pregnancy), as well as 8 hinged colored anatomical models of nose, ear, oral cavity and larynx, heart, eye, stomach, lung and head in color pressure (Chromolithographie).
Already the first publication of Bilz "The human happiness" of 1882 contained a naturopathic attachment. Later, Bilz published only natural history books. The books of Bilz with their fold-out panels achieved dreamlike editions - until 1938, about 3.5 million copies were sold. Last (stripped down) edition 1956!.
The four-volume showpiece of 1910 reached a volume of more than 4,000 pages and was richly illustrated with 1,400 text images, 58 color plates and 16 demountable models.
The work has been translated into 12 languages - the flip picture shown here was imported from the USA, so it should be taken from an American Bilz edition. You can see the three main layers folded into a triangle. Each of these layers has more or less lush further folding options. The most detailed is the intestinal tract, where the figure readily shows us her pregnant uterus ... a bloodless autopsy for home use!
Similar tomograms can be found in a popular health book published by a doctor: med Anna Fischer-Dückelmann, The wife as a family doctor, a book that appeared from 1901 to 1979 in countless issues (and pirated prints).
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