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Details
BILS, Lodewijk de (1624-1669). Specimina anatomica. Rotterdam: Arnold Leers, 1661.
4o (192 x 152 mm). 27 pages. 4 full-page engravings. 18th-century marbled boards (spine worn). Provenance: Andreas Smissaert, Franciscan, candidate at the Brussels College of Medicine (inscription dated 1694 on D2, inscriptions on pastedowns). FIRST EDITION. NLM/Krivatsy 1270.
[Bound with:]
BILS. Epistolica dissertatio. Rotterdam: Joannes Naerani, 1659.
4o. 6 pages. One engraved plate. (Repaired tear on title crossing imprint.) FIRST EDITION. NLM/Krivatsy 2363.
[Bound with:]
BILS. Epistoa apologetica ad magnum Th. Bartholinum. Rotterdam: Arnold Leers, 1661.
4o. 10 pages. Not in NLM/Krivatsy.
[Bound with:]
BILS. Omnibus verae anatomes studiosis. Rotterdam: Joannes Naerum, 1660.
4o. 4 pages. FIRST EDITION. NLM/Krivatsy 1267.
[Bound with:]
MAJOR, J.D. Historia anatomica calculorum, insolentioris figurae... Leipzig: Johan. Barthol. Oehleri, 1663.
4o. 28 pages. (Wormhole in lower half of sheet with loss of letters.) Later edition.
Lodewijk de Bils was an amateur anatomist with eccentric ideas which he claimed were new discoveries: a method of animal vivisection that avoided bloodshed, and a way to preserve cadavers that maintained flexibility and prevented decay. Initially leading anatomists were taken in, but before long the weight of opinion turned against Bils, and he came to be viewed by all except a few partisans as a charlatan. The first work consists of descriptions written by others of dissections carried out by Bils including three remarkable plates depicting the dissection of a pair of conjoined twins. The third work, a letter to Thomas Bartholin, Bils' primary critic, is signed by Nicolaus Zas (1610-1663) but some authorities believe that it was written by Bils.
4
[Bound with:]
BILS. Epistolica dissertatio. Rotterdam: Joannes Naerani, 1659.
4
[Bound with:]
BILS. Epistoa apologetica ad magnum Th. Bartholinum. Rotterdam: Arnold Leers, 1661.
4
[Bound with:]
BILS. Omnibus verae anatomes studiosis. Rotterdam: Joannes Naerum, 1660.
4
[Bound with:]
MAJOR, J.D. Historia anatomica calculorum, insolentioris figurae... Leipzig: Johan. Barthol. Oehleri, 1663.
4
Lodewijk de Bils was an amateur anatomist with eccentric ideas which he claimed were new discoveries: a method of animal vivisection that avoided bloodshed, and a way to preserve cadavers that maintained flexibility and prevented decay. Initially leading anatomists were taken in, but before long the weight of opinion turned against Bils, and he came to be viewed by all except a few partisans as a charlatan. The first work consists of descriptions written by others of dissections carried out by Bils including three remarkable plates depicting the dissection of a pair of conjoined twins. The third work, a letter to Thomas Bartholin, Bils' primary critic, is signed by Nicolaus Zas (1610-1663) but some authorities believe that it was written by Bils.