Details
PRIMROSE, JAMES (1592-1659). Exercitationes, et animadversiones in librum, De motu cordis, et circulatione sanguinis. Adversus Gvillielmum Harveum. London: William Jones for Nicholas Bourne, 1630.
4o (182 x 140 mm.). Architectural woodcut titlepage border, woodcut capitals and headpieces, errata at bottom of P2v. Later vellum.
FIRST EDITION of the first published attack on Harvey's theory of circulation as embodied in the De motu cordis (1628). Willis, author of History of the discovery of the circulation of the blood (London 1878), characterized Primrose's book as 'obstinate denials...perversions of statements involving matters of fact, and in its whole course appeals not once to experiment as a means of investigation'" (Keynes, Life of Harvey, p.320). Very rare: aside from the Honeyman copy (sale, Sotheby's, 10 November 1980, lot 2539, cropped and repaired) the only other copy recorded in auction records is the Moncreiff copy, sold in 1931. NLM/Krivatsky 9293; Osler 724; STC 20385; Waller 7641; Wellcome I, 5250; Norman 1753.
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FIRST EDITION of the first published attack on Harvey's theory of circulation as embodied in the De motu cordis (1628). Willis, author of History of the discovery of the circulation of the blood (London 1878), characterized Primrose's book as 'obstinate denials...perversions of statements involving matters of fact, and in its whole course appeals not once to experiment as a means of investigation'" (Keynes, Life of Harvey, p.320). Very rare: aside from the Honeyman copy (sale, Sotheby's, 10 November 1980, lot 2539, cropped and repaired) the only other copy recorded in auction records is the Moncreiff copy, sold in 1931. NLM/Krivatsky 9293; Osler 724; STC 20385; Waller 7641; Wellcome I, 5250; Norman 1753.