“AMONG THE MOST BEAUTIFUL [PLATES] IN NEUROANATOMY”: FIRST EDITION OF BELL’S ILLUSTRATED ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN, 1802,WITH 12 SPLENDID AQUATINT PLATES, ELEVEN HAND-COLORED, RARE IN ORIGINAL BOARDS

BELL, Charles. The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings. London: for T.N. Longman and O. Rees, et. al., 1802. Quarto (10 by 12 inches), original brown paper boards rebacked, original printed paper label to front board, uncut; pp. 87. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Scottish surgeon Sir Charles Bell’s Anatomy of the Brain, featuring 12 aquatint anatomical plates (eleven hand-colored)—“engraved by Thomas Medland after Bell’s own drawings… probably Bell’s most beautiful work on neuroanatomy and one of the most beautifully illustrated in the entire literature”—exceptionally rare uncut in original boards.

In Anatomy of the Brain, Bell "displays both his descriptive and artistic capabilities. The 12 aquatint plates (eleven of them hand-colored) were engraved by Thomas Medland after Bell's own drawings and constitute what is probably Bell's most beautiful work on neuroanatomy and one of the most beautifully illustrated in the entire literature" (Heirs of Hippocrates 1297). Moving to London in 1804, Bell "developed his experimental techniques involving the peripheral nerves in order to discover how the brain functions… Bell introduced new methods of determining the functional anatomy of the nervous system… His techniques and observations led to Johannes Müller's generalizations on the sensory functions of the nervous system… Bell's great discovery was that there are two kinds of nerves, sensory and motor," and his "systems of anatomy, dissections and surgery still stand unrivaled for facility of expression, elegance of style and accuracy of description" (DNB; Chouland, 343). Bell's plates in Anatomy of the Brain "are among the most beautiful in neuroanatomy. Plate I is important for its accurate portrayal of the cerebral gyri… Plates I-X were engraved in colors as well as colored by hand" (Norman 168). Plates with recent acid-free tissue guards. Waller 860.

Plates bright and fresh, interior lightest foxing mainly to preliminaries, mild rubbing, edge-wear to boards. A highly desirable near-fine uncut copy, uncut in original boards.