1678. FINE ENGRAVINGS. Opera Omnia

Leiden: Io. Ant. Hugetan, 1678. Second edition.

1678 COLLECTED WORKS OF NOTED DUTCH ANATOMIST AND PHYSIOLOGIST, ILLUSTRATED WITH FINE ENGRAVINGS OF MALE AND FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEMS.

7 3/4 inches tall hardcover, full leather binding, spine with raised bands, gilt compartments and gilt title to spine, expertly rebacked with original spine conserved, 8vo. xx, [4], 390pp. Engraved title, portrait, 41 copper plate engravings (most folding) of male and female genitourinary system, digestive system, clyster apparatus, and syringe. Includes images of ectopic human pregnancy and surgical preparation of a dog for physiologic study of digestive tract. Surface wear to covers and spine, bookplate of physician previous owner to front paste-down, ink signature of original owner top of front endpaper (Francisci Joannis Desmares Bonneville), scattered wormholes (mostly marginal), binding tight, pages crisp and unmarked, plates with small tears at base of folds, overall very good minus, in custom archival mylar cover. Includes 3 Garrison-Morton titles (974, 1209, and 1210), text in Latin.

REGNIER DE GRAAF (1641 – 1673) was a Dutch physician and anatomist who made key discoveries in the biology of the reproductive and digestive tracts. He studied medicine in Utrecht and Leiden, submitted his doctoral thesis on the pancreas, and went to France where he obtained his medical degree from the University of Angers. After returning to the Netherlands, since he was a Catholic in a mainly Protestant country, he was unable to follow a university career. After the early death of a son, De Graaf died in 1673 at age 32. The mature stage of the ovarian follicle is called the Graafian follicle in his honor. De Graaf also described the anatomy of the testicles and collected secretions of the gall bladder and the pancreas (all illustrated in the plates).