COWPER, William (1666-1709). The Anatomy of Humane Bodies with figures drawn after life by some of the best masters in Europe, Oxford: for S. Smith & B. Walford, 1698, 2°, FIRST EDITION, engraved additional title, mezzotint portrait by Smith after Closterman (cut down and mounted), 114 engraved plates, 2 folding, the majority probably by Bloteling after Lairesse, the final 9 plates by Michael van der Gucht after Henry Cook (lacking *1-2, small stain on a1, folding plates frayed and repaired, some plates trimmed, a few plates with minor soiling or spotting), contemporary panelled calf (upper cover detached, and with stamp). [Choulant/Frank p. 252; GM385.1; Krivatsy 2787; Norman 529 (lacking portrait); Russell 211; Wing C6698] Provenance: JCL

Details

COWPER, William (1666-1709). The Anatomy of Humane Bodies with figures drawn after life by some of the best masters in Europe, Oxford: for S. Smith & B. Walford, 1698, 2°, FIRST EDITION, engraved additional title, mezzotint portrait by Smith after Closterman (cut down and mounted), 114 engraved plates, 2 folding, the majority probably by Bloteling after Lairesse, the final 9 plates by Michael van der Gucht after Henry Cook (lacking *1-2, small stain on a1, folding plates frayed and repaired, some plates trimmed, a few plates with minor soiling or spotting), contemporary panelled calf (upper cover detached, and with stamp). [Choulant/Frank p. 252; GM385.1; Krivatsy 2787; Norman 529 (lacking portrait); Russell 211; Wing C6698] Provenance: JCL

Lot Essay

GM: "The most elaborate and beautiful of all 17th century English treatises on anatomy and also one of the most extraordinary plagiarisms in the entire history of medicine."
Cowper obtained about 300 sets of the plates to Bidloo's Anatomia Humani Corporis. He issued these with an expanded English text and pasted a printed slip with his own name over the cartouche bearing Bidloo's name.

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