.jpg?w=1)
Details
RUDBECK, Olof (1630-1702). Nova excercitatio anatomica, Exhibens ducta hepaticos aquosos, & vasa glandularum serosa, nunc primum inventa, aeneisque figuris delineata. Vsteroas: Eucharius Lauringerus, 1653.
4o (182 x 147 mm). Collation: A-F4. 24 leaves. Errata on F4v. 2 engraved folding plates, the first signed "sculpsit Magn. Celsius," printer's woodcut device on title, woodcut headpiece and initial. (Plate 1 very slightly cropped at fore-edge and with portion of upper margin torn away, faint staining to gutter margins.) Late 19th-century half Japan vellum, marbled paper sides. Modern quarter morocco folding box. Provenance: anonymous owner (Sotheby's London, 8 November 1985, lot 678).
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION, documenting the discovery of the lymphatic system. In the fall of 1650, investigating the vascular systems of animals at the University of Uppsala, the youthful Rudbeck discovered previously undescribed vessels that carried a colorless fluid from the liver: the lymphatic vessels. At the same time he discovered the thoracic duct, which had recently been independently discovered by Pecquet in Paris (see lot 710). Further investigation led Rudbeck to conclude that the lymphatic system was a distinct and hitherto unknown physiological system. In 1652 he demonstrated his discoveries before Queen Cristina and her court, but delayed publishing them until a year later, a delay which occasioned a dispute over priority with the highly accomplished Danish physician Thomas Bartholin, who had published his own work on the lymphatic system in a pamphlet entitled Vasa lymphatica (Copenhagen 1653) only a few weeks before publication of Rudbeck's work. Although the controversy caused much ink to flow between Rudbeck and Bartholin's supporters, it is ultimately of less interest than the common context of these parallel researches: "Whether Pecquet or Rudbeck first identified the thoracic duct, or whether Bartholin or Rudbeck first described the lymphatic system, is finally less important than the testimony these disputes over priority give to the broader consensus across Europe as to the nature and direction of anatomical and physiological research after Harvey" (Grolier Medicine).
Published no doubt in a very small quantity, Rudbeck's work is ONE OF THE GREATEST RARITIES OF MEDICAL LITERATURE. The Norman copy is possibly the only one remaining in private hands. Garrison-Morton 1098; Grolier Medicine 28C (this copy exhibited); Waller 8283; Norman 1855.
4
EXTREMELY RARE FIRST EDITION, documenting the discovery of the lymphatic system. In the fall of 1650, investigating the vascular systems of animals at the University of Uppsala, the youthful Rudbeck discovered previously undescribed vessels that carried a colorless fluid from the liver: the lymphatic vessels. At the same time he discovered the thoracic duct, which had recently been independently discovered by Pecquet in Paris (see lot 710). Further investigation led Rudbeck to conclude that the lymphatic system was a distinct and hitherto unknown physiological system. In 1652 he demonstrated his discoveries before Queen Cristina and her court, but delayed publishing them until a year later, a delay which occasioned a dispute over priority with the highly accomplished Danish physician Thomas Bartholin, who had published his own work on the lymphatic system in a pamphlet entitled Vasa lymphatica (Copenhagen 1653) only a few weeks before publication of Rudbeck's work. Although the controversy caused much ink to flow between Rudbeck and Bartholin's supporters, it is ultimately of less interest than the common context of these parallel researches: "Whether Pecquet or Rudbeck first identified the thoracic duct, or whether Bartholin or Rudbeck first described the lymphatic system, is finally less important than the testimony these disputes over priority give to the broader consensus across Europe as to the nature and direction of anatomical and physiological research after Harvey" (Grolier Medicine).
Published no doubt in a very small quantity, Rudbeck's work is ONE OF THE GREATEST RARITIES OF MEDICAL LITERATURE. The Norman copy is possibly the only one remaining in private hands. Garrison-Morton 1098; Grolier Medicine 28C (this copy exhibited); Waller 8283; Norman 1855.