TABULAE ANATOMICAE Clarissimi viri Bartolomaei Eustachii quas e tenbris tandem vindicatas et Claeentis Papae XI Munificentia dono acceptas, praefatione ac notis illustravit Joh Maria Lancisius Archiater Pontificius

First published in 1714, the two Roman editions are the only ones printed unaltered directly from the original 1552 plates. In thinking of scientific anatomy during the Renaissance, two names come to mind immediately, Vesalius and Eustachius. While Vesalius is the better known, it is intriguing to speculate whether that may, in part, be an accident of history. The plates in the current volume, completed from Eustachius' drawings in 1552, were intended for an anatomic text which was never written. Only eight of the plates were published with Eustachius' notes. The remainder of the notes were lost, the plates were passed on the his assistant and eventually deposited in the Vatican Library. There they lay for 150 years until rediscovered in the early eighteenth century by Giovanni Maria Lancisi, the Pope's physician, who added his own comments and had the entire work published, including Eustachius' notes to the eight previously published images. " Had the plates been published at the time they were executed, Eustachius would undoubtedly have ranked with Vesalius as a founder of modern anatomical studies. Indeed, the title page vignette, illustrating a dissection, the forty-seven plates themselves and the the large capital letters decorated with pastoral and hunting science make his a splendid anatomical atlas, with few peers and fewer superiors"

Sumptibus Laurentii & Thomae Pagliarini Bibliopol. sub signo Palladis. Typographia Rochi Bernabo, Rome, 1728. Second Roman Edition.

15 3/4” x 10”

Engraving/etching on a verge type of hand-laid paper. Good condition, very good impressions on early 18^th century laid paper, some folds, small tears and age toning to margins.

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