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EUSTACHIUS, Bartholomaeus (ca. 1505-1574). Opuscula anatomica. Venice: Vincenzo Luchino, 1564.
4o (202 x 140 mm). Printer's woodcut device on titles and at end, 8 full-page etchings by Giulio de Musi after drawings by Eustachi and Pier Matteo Pini. (Title-page with a few dampstains and piece of outer margin patched, some minor marginal foxing.) 17th-century vellum, early hand-lettering on spine. Provenance: "Jo. Hier. Sbarallus," early signature on title.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL ANATOMICAL BOOKS. This very rare and important work includes the first specific treatise on the kidney, the first account of the Eustachian tube in the ear, the first description of the thoracic duct, and the Eustachian valve, as well as the first systematic study of teeth. In 1562 and 1563 Eustachi produced a remarkable series of treatises on the kidney, De renum structura; the ear, De auditus organis; the venous system, De vena quae azygos graecis dicitur; and the teeth, De dentibus (with a separate title-page bearing a 1563 date). These were published together with two earlier defenses of Galen as Opuscula anatomica in 1564. Eustachi was among the first to study the teeth in any detail, and his treatise, De dentibus, contains an early and important description of the first and second dentitions based on his observations from dissections of fetuses and stillborn infants. He described the tooth's hard outer tissue and soft inner structure, and attempted to explain the problem of the sensitivity of the tooth's hard structure.
The fine etchings illustrating the edition "were the first eight in an intended series of forty-seven anatomical plates engraved by Giulio de' Musi after drawings by Eustachi and his relative, Pier Matteo Pini, an artist. These were prepared in 1552 to illustrate a projected book entitled De dissensionibus ac controversiis anatomicis, the text of which was lost after Eustachi's death. Had the full series of plates been published at the time of their completion, Eustachi would have ranked with Vesalius as a founder of modern anatomy" (Grolier Medicine). For the 18th-century publication of the rediscovered full complement of plates, see lot 86.
Adams E-1103; Choulant-Frank pp. 200-01; Garrison-Morton 801, 1093, 1139, 1228, 1538, and 3668; Grolier Medicine 21 (this copy); Heirs of Hippocrates 322; NLM/Durling 1408; Norman 739.
4o (202 x 140 mm). Printer's woodcut device on titles and at end, 8 full-page etchings by Giulio de Musi after drawings by Eustachi and Pier Matteo Pini. (Title-page with a few dampstains and piece of outer margin patched, some minor marginal foxing.) 17th-century vellum, early hand-lettering on spine. Provenance: "Jo. Hier. Sbarallus," early signature on title.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL ANATOMICAL BOOKS. This very rare and important work includes the first specific treatise on the kidney, the first account of the Eustachian tube in the ear, the first description of the thoracic duct, and the Eustachian valve, as well as the first systematic study of teeth. In 1562 and 1563 Eustachi produced a remarkable series of treatises on the kidney, De renum structura; the ear, De auditus organis; the venous system, De vena quae azygos graecis dicitur; and the teeth, De dentibus (with a separate title-page bearing a 1563 date). These were published together with two earlier defenses of Galen as Opuscula anatomica in 1564. Eustachi was among the first to study the teeth in any detail, and his treatise, De dentibus, contains an early and important description of the first and second dentitions based on his observations from dissections of fetuses and stillborn infants. He described the tooth's hard outer tissue and soft inner structure, and attempted to explain the problem of the sensitivity of the tooth's hard structure.
The fine etchings illustrating the edition "were the first eight in an intended series of forty-seven anatomical plates engraved by Giulio de' Musi after drawings by Eustachi and his relative, Pier Matteo Pini, an artist. These were prepared in 1552 to illustrate a projected book entitled De dissensionibus ac controversiis anatomicis, the text of which was lost after Eustachi's death. Had the full series of plates been published at the time of their completion, Eustachi would have ranked with Vesalius as a founder of modern anatomy" (Grolier Medicine). For the 18th-century publication of the rediscovered full complement of plates, see lot 86.
Adams E-1103; Choulant-Frank pp. 200-01; Garrison-Morton 801, 1093, 1139, 1228, 1538, and 3668; Grolier Medicine 21 (this copy); Heirs of Hippocrates 322; NLM/Durling 1408; Norman 739.