Valverde's anatomical textbook first appeared in Spanish at Rome in 1556 under the title: Historia de la composición del cuerpo humano. Valverde, who studied under Vesalius at Padua, used about two-thirds of the illustrations from Vesalius, whom he acknowledged with high praise in his preface. In distinction to the woodcuts of Vesalius, Valverde's plates, were engraved on copper, probably by Gaspar Becerra, who had worked with Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel. Several of the illustrations are reversed. Valverde's work has forty-six plates, thirty-eight of which were derived directly from Vesalius. Vesalian illustrations include the contemplative skeleton man (leaf 28r); and the muscle man with diaphragm (leaf 71 r). To these Valverde added several illustrations of his own, rich in mannerist excesses: the ecorché (flayed) figure holding a skinning knife in his hand (leaf 64r); the figures holding their flayed bodies open (leaf 94r); the dissected man dissecting a cadaver (leaf 108r). abdominal situs encased in armour (leaf 95r). Although Valverde's text relied heavily on that of Vesalius, he makes about sixty corrections and additions to his former teacher's work, mostly in the captions to the illustrations. Valverde's text was very popular and was translated into Italian (Rome, 1559, 1560; Venice, 1586, 1606, 1608, 1682), Latin (Antwerp, 1566, 1572; Venice, 1589, 1607) and Dutch (1568, 1647)