"RECOGNIZED THE WORK OF ASELLI AND HARVEY": BARTHOLIN'S ILLUSTRATED 1684 ANATOMY, WITH 124 ENGRAVINGS, 12 FOLDING

(MEDICINE—ANATOMY) (BARTHOLIN, Caspar) BARTHOLIN, Thomas. Anatome Quartum Renovata… [Anatomia Bartholiniana]. Lugduni [Lyon]: Marci & Joan. Henrici Huguetan, 1684. Small thick octavo, contemporary full dark brown calf, gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, endpapers renewed.

Early edition in Latin of this important and popular anatomical text, Thomas Bartholin's revised edition of his father Caspar's landmark Institutiones Anatomicae, with engraved extra title page, portrait of the author, and 123 copper-engraved anatomical illustrations, 12 folding, after Casserius and Vesling.

Though largely a revision of his father Caspar's Institutiones anatomicae corporis humani (1611), Thomas Bartholin's incorporation of his own investigations made the Anatomia Bartholiniana one of the best and most widely consulted anatomical textbooks of the 17th century. "Notably, the new edition recognized the work of Aselli and Harvey" (DSB). Thomas divides the work into four books treating, respectively, the lower torso, the thoracic cavity, the head, and the limbs, joints, and muscles. Following these and corresponding to them are four shorter "manuals" discussing the veins, the arteries, the nerves, and the bones, cartilage, and ligaments. The work concludes with two letters from Johann Walaeus to Thomas concerning the circulation of blood and chyle within the body. Walaeus and Bartholin were among the first to disseminate and defend Harvey's revolutionary findings on blood circulation. "The workmanship on the copper engravings… for a compendium, is on the whole commendable" (Choulant). First published in Leiden, 1641, revised in 1645, and revised again in 1651, "an edition much superior in text to the second… also noteworthy for the illustrations from Casserius and Vesling that replaced the earlier Vesalian figures" (DSB). The present 1684 edition is based on that 1651 third edition. Krivatsy 783. Choulant, Anatomic Illustration, 245-47. DSB I, 482-83.

Small ink burn to title page, not affecting letterpress or engraved vignette. Closed tear to folding plate opposite page 570. Occasional foxing, some very faint dampstaining toward rear. Old repairs to joints and spine head, a few early leaves rehinged, endpapers renewed. Very good in contemporary calf-gilt.