This family is based on historical sources from the same time period, although it's a little more erratic than the sample shown...

Oh, I'd love to get some more background knowledge about this type too!

A snippet of context – Oporin (Latin: Oporinus; Oporini is the genitive) was one of the Basel printers, working out of a building that still stands incidentally. He was a student of Froben's, arguably the most important Basel printer of the early 16th century.

I have a few more photos of the same book here, in case it helps (some closeups of both the Roman and Italic):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/sets/72157616517306105/

The German Wikipedia has some info on Oporinus ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Oporinus ) and also links to some more photos of the Vesalius book here (but this is less focused on getting the type large): http://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wantz/vesd1.htm

Oh wait a second – jp romo, where exactly are your photos from, might this be a later edition* or a reprint or something? I just realized the type is quite different from the one in my shots (which are of the original, I believe the first edition).
Sorry if I caused confusion.

[* Jelmar noted here that there was a second edition with different type.]

I made this trial 3 or 4 years ago:

Edit: Nina this ę is ecaudata, medieval latin character hijacked in XVI cent. as polish eogonek.