Estienne, Charles:

De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres. Paris, Simon de Colines, 1545, Folio, (23), 379 pp. (misnumbered 375), 62 full-page woodcut text illustrations, vellum (with old vellum), last page in facsimilie. Large and very good copy.

      . FIRST EDITION! "Charles Estienne (1504-1564) was a member of ' the famous family of printers bearing the same name. He recieved ' his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1542, but had ' apparently been at work on this anatomical magnum opus for many ' years, as some of the plates are dated 1530 and 1531. This ' magnificent folio volume is one of the finest of all anatomical ' treaties. Certainly it was the finest printed in France in its ' century, and the sixty-two full-page woodcuts, artistically ' presenting the anatomical subjects in special poses before unusal ' background seetings, are unusually sumptuous and ' imaginative". "Had 'DE DISSECTIONE... been published in 1539, ' there is no question that it would have stolen much of the ' thunder from Vesaliu's Fabricia: it would have been the first ' work to show detailed illustrations of dissection in serial ' progression, the first to discuss and illustrate the total human ' body, the first to publish instruction to mount a skeleton, and ' the first to the anatomical figures in a fully developed ' panoramic landscape...." Despite its tardy appearance, however, ' DE DISSECTIONE..... was able to make numerous original contributions ' to anatomy, including the first illustrations of the whole ' external venous and nervous system, and the descriptions of the ' morphology and purpose of the "feeding holes" of bones, the ' tripartate composition of the sternum, the valvulae in the ' hepatic veins and the srotal septum. In addition, the work's ' eight dissection of the brain give more anatomical detail that ' had previously appeared." Heirs of Hippocrates 153; Norman 728; ' Choulant-Frank, pp.152 - 155; Durling 1391; Garrison-Morton 378; ' Waller 2819; Osler 2541; Wellcome 6076. '.