The creator of the atlas, prof. Robert Johannes Sobotta (1869–1945) was born in Bonn, Germany, and was professor and director of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Bonn. The first edition of his work was published in three volumes in 1904-1907 in Würzburg by JK Lehmans Verlag. Since then, in 113 years, various editors have introduced some additions and improvements to the atlas, but the heritage and thought of prof. Sobotty continues.
The atlas has been translated into 18 languages and is probably the most translated anatomical atlas in the world. The last, 24th edition was published in German in 2017 and was translated into Polish in 2019. The atlas consists of three parts:
Volume 1: General anatomical concepts and musculoskeletal system
Volume 2: Internal Organs
Volume 3: Head, Neck and Neuroanatomy
In each volume, apart from discussing the most important issues, there are descriptions of several selected clinical cases showing the described anatomical structures in a broader context. At the end of each chapter, there are short test questions to engage readers and consolidate the acquired knowledge. Each illustration is described accurately and comprehensively, the quality of the drawings is extremely precise. Numerous tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance images were added as color figures.