Dedicated to the Tudors: Thomas Gemini and a Shifting Book Dedication

Abstract

Thomas Gemini dedicated Compendiosa totius anatomie delineatio to Henry viii in 1545, Edward vi in 1553, and then Elizabeth in 1559, with that to Elizabeth differing greatly from those to Henry and Edward. Elizabeth received a gender-appropriate dedication that focused on spirituality and virtue, while Henry and Edward were offered dedications that focused on the need for medical knowledge and training to be spread within England. The 1559 edition also has an engraved image of Elizabeth that some scholars have even considered to be an adaptation of an image of Mary, meaning that the text may have had an association with four Tudor monarchs. This essay suggests that the shifting dedications by Gemini are evidence of a man who remained loyal to the crown, when he easily could have kept the dedication to Henry in all editions or even removed the dedication altogether when printing under later monarchs.