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COWPER, William (1666-1709). Myotomia Reformata: or an Anatomical Treatise on the Muscles of the Human Body. London: for Robert Knaplock and William and John Innys, 1724.
2o (464 x 324 mm). Title printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece, engraved full-sheet table of the "Syllabus musculorum," 66 engraved plates numbered to 66, with plate 13 in two states, engraved text diagrams, fine engraved historiated initials and head- and tail-piece illustrations, a few woodcut tailpieces and typographic head-piece ornaments. (Frontispiece repaired with tear crossing image, lacks half-title, blank leaves v2 and Ddd2, scant spotting.) 19th-century calf gilt (rebacked, corners bumped). Provenance: Thomas Bacon (armorial bookplate).
Cowper worked until his early death on this enlarged version of his Myotomia reformata, which made its modest first appearance in 1694 as an octavo volume with ten plates. The new version, which is really a new work, is a sumptuous folio with sixty-six plates, some of which are after Rubens and Raphael, with others drawn specially for this publication by unidentified artists. It was issued 15 years after Cowper's death, edited by James Jurin under the supervision and at the expense of the wealthy physician and art collector, Richard Mead. It ranks as one the finest examples of anatomical art of the period not only for the quality of the large plates but for the unusual engraved vignettes of musclemen used as head- and tail-pieces, and the ingenious and amusing historiated initials wittily decorated with myotomical motifs. The text of this edition includes a long introduction on muscular mechanics by Henry Pemberton who prepared the last edition of Newton's Principia (1726). The engravers of the images are unknown. Choulant-Frank, p. 253; Garrison-Morton 392.1; Heirs of Hippocrates 723; Norman 530; Osler 2384; Roberts & Tomlinson pp. 415-17; Russell 210; Wellcome II, p. 401.
2o (464 x 324 mm). Title printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece, engraved full-sheet table of the "Syllabus musculorum," 66 engraved plates numbered to 66, with plate 13 in two states, engraved text diagrams, fine engraved historiated initials and head- and tail-piece illustrations, a few woodcut tailpieces and typographic head-piece ornaments. (Frontispiece repaired with tear crossing image, lacks half-title, blank leaves v2 and Ddd2, scant spotting.) 19th-century calf gilt (rebacked, corners bumped). Provenance: Thomas Bacon (armorial bookplate).
Cowper worked until his early death on this enlarged version of his Myotomia reformata, which made its modest first appearance in 1694 as an octavo volume with ten plates. The new version, which is really a new work, is a sumptuous folio with sixty-six plates, some of which are after Rubens and Raphael, with others drawn specially for this publication by unidentified artists. It was issued 15 years after Cowper's death, edited by James Jurin under the supervision and at the expense of the wealthy physician and art collector, Richard Mead. It ranks as one the finest examples of anatomical art of the period not only for the quality of the large plates but for the unusual engraved vignettes of musclemen used as head- and tail-pieces, and the ingenious and amusing historiated initials wittily decorated with myotomical motifs. The text of this edition includes a long introduction on muscular mechanics by Henry Pemberton who prepared the last edition of Newton's Principia (1726). The engravers of the images are unknown. Choulant-Frank, p. 253; Garrison-Morton 392.1; Heirs of Hippocrates 723; Norman 530; Osler 2384; Roberts & Tomlinson pp. 415-17; Russell 210; Wellcome II, p. 401.