Bibliotheca anatomica; sive, Recens in anatomia inventorum thesaurus locupletissimus....
Geneva: Joannis Anthonii Chovët, 1685. Two volumes. Folio. [xxx], 736; 1106 pp. FIRST EDITION. Titles in red and black with allegorical vignette. With the famous engraved pyramid frontispiece showing a dissection scene with a pile of animals in the foreground awaiting dissection, and with 89 fine plates, mostly folding, and numerous copperplate and woodcut vignettes in the text. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, covers somewhat soiled; first and last couple of leaves of Volume I worn along the blank fore-edge and foot of the engraved title, a few leaves creased, but generally a very clean copy; preliminary and last leaves of Volume II are a bit ragged on the blank fore-edge and lower corners, otherwise this is also a very good clean copy. From the library of R. Münzzing with a woodcut bookplate signed Albert Engstrum. Item #19980
First edition of this extraordinary encyclopedia of seventeenth-century anatomical works. The fine plates are based on the most important discoveries of the period and laid the foundation for modern anatomy and physiology. Among the numerous authors represented are Harvey, with the text and plates of De motu cordis and De generatione animalium, Glisson, Malpighi, Willis, de Graaf, Steno, Swammerdam, Lower, Mayow, and Borelli. Each of the author’s works is complete, and in most cases with illustrations the size of the originals.
LeClerc (1652-1728), a Swiss physician known as the “Father of the History of Medicine,” wrote the first large history of medicine, which according to Garrison & Morton (6379) is still consulted today. Manget (1652-1742) was a Swiss physician who made original contributions to medicine as well as compiling encyclopedic volumes on practical medicine and surgery, pharmaceutical remedies, and anatomical works covering the human body. According to Richard Eimas, Manget’s works were undoubtedly valuable references for the scientific community of his day.
Copies of this first edition have become quite scarce.
Krivatsy 6758; Osler 3192; Wellcome III, p. 470.
Price: $7,500.00