Details
HUNDT, Magnus, the elder (1449-1519). Antropologium de hominis dignitate, natura, et proprietatibus de elementis. Leipzig: Wolfgang Stoeckel, 1501.
4o (210 x 150 mm). Collation: A-C6 D4 E-L6 M4 N-V6 2A4. 120 leaves, unfoliated. Gothic type, shoulder notes. 4 pp. errata at end. 4-line initial spaces, a few with guide letters. 5 full-page woodcuts, including one repeat, 14 small woodcuts of anatomical details, printer's woodcut device on V6v. (A few small wormholes through text of first 50 leaves, some minor fraying to edges at front and back, marginal dampstaining to title-leaf and a few other leaves.) Modern calf tooled in blind to a geometrical design, by Ivor Robinson (small scratches to upper cover). Provenance: much annotated by a contemporary owner (a few marginalia cropped); inserted sheet of comments on the book, signed and dated R.C.H.[?], April 14, 1887.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED BOOKS WITH ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. Hundt was a professor of medicine at the University of Leipzig. The illustrations in his text, comprise the most complete representation of the human organs and viscera published up to that time, but are nonetheless rather schematic, physicians at that period expecting no more from their reference books (printed or manuscript) than an aide-mmoire. The full-page woodcuts include one of the head (repeated), one of the entire body (surrounded by a letterpress list of the principal external anatomical parts, whose approximate locations in the body are indicated by the position in the list and a few short connecting woodcut lines), one of the hand showing the chiromantic markings, and one showing the internal organs of the thorax and the abdomen; the smaller cuts include depictions of the eye, the stomach and intestines, the cranium, spinal cord, heart and spleen. According to Choulant, most of the woodcuts derive from the still cruder cuts illustrating the last chapter of Johannes Peyligk's Compendium philosophiae naturalis, published in Leipzig in 1499. Hundt's work "gives a clear idea of anatomy prior to Berengario da Carpi, and can be regarded as typifing late fifteenth-century concepts. Hundt held that the stars exert more influence on the human body than other composites of elements, and his book includes generalizations about human physiognomy and chiromancy as well as anatomy. He subscribed to the notion of the seven-celled uterus, which he apparently derived from Galen" (DSB). RARE.
BM/STC German p. 423; Choulant-Frank pp. 125-126; Garrison-Morton 363.3; NLM/Durling 2507; Stillwell Science 664; Waller 4991; Norman 1115.
4o (210 x 150 mm). Collation: A-C6 D4 E-L6 M4 N-V6 2A4. 120 leaves, unfoliated. Gothic type, shoulder notes. 4 pp. errata at end. 4-line initial spaces, a few with guide letters. 5 full-page woodcuts, including one repeat, 14 small woodcuts of anatomical details, printer's woodcut device on V6v. (A few small wormholes through text of first 50 leaves, some minor fraying to edges at front and back, marginal dampstaining to title-leaf and a few other leaves.) Modern calf tooled in blind to a geometrical design, by Ivor Robinson (small scratches to upper cover). Provenance: much annotated by a contemporary owner (a few marginalia cropped); inserted sheet of comments on the book, signed and dated R.C.H.[?], April 14, 1887.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST PRINTED BOOKS WITH ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. Hundt was a professor of medicine at the University of Leipzig. The illustrations in his text, comprise the most complete representation of the human organs and viscera published up to that time, but are nonetheless rather schematic, physicians at that period expecting no more from their reference books (printed or manuscript) than an aide-mmoire. The full-page woodcuts include one of the head (repeated), one of the entire body (surrounded by a letterpress list of the principal external anatomical parts, whose approximate locations in the body are indicated by the position in the list and a few short connecting woodcut lines), one of the hand showing the chiromantic markings, and one showing the internal organs of the thorax and the abdomen; the smaller cuts include depictions of the eye, the stomach and intestines, the cranium, spinal cord, heart and spleen. According to Choulant, most of the woodcuts derive from the still cruder cuts illustrating the last chapter of Johannes Peyligk's Compendium philosophiae naturalis, published in Leipzig in 1499. Hundt's work "gives a clear idea of anatomy prior to Berengario da Carpi, and can be regarded as typifing late fifteenth-century concepts. Hundt held that the stars exert more influence on the human body than other composites of elements, and his book includes generalizations about human physiognomy and chiromancy as well as anatomy. He subscribed to the notion of the seven-celled uterus, which he apparently derived from Galen" (DSB). RARE.
BM/STC German p. 423; Choulant-Frank pp. 125-126; Garrison-Morton 363.3; NLM/Durling 2507; Stillwell Science 664; Waller 4991; Norman 1115.