Oxford University will ask Nippon Dental University in Tokyo to clarify whether it owns a groundbreaking 16th century book that was stolen from Oxford in the early 1990s, the university said Thursday.
According to news reports Wednesday in Britain, the two-volume set of the 1552 edition of Andreas Vesalius's "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" ("On the fabric of the Human Body") is believed to have been bought legitimately by Nippon Dental University.
The book was stolen from the Christ Church College library between 1993 and 1995.
A lecturer who smuggled rare books from Christ Church's library was convicted of theft and sentenced to two years in prison.