Observationes anatomicae

Heavily Annotated by an 18th-Century Medical Scholar

Santorini, Giovanni Domenico (1681-1737). Observationes anatomicae. 4to. [12], 250 [i.e., 252]pp. 3 folding engraved plates, the second plate signed by the artist Marcus Galli and the engraver Carlo Orsolini (ca. 1710-ca. 1780). Venice: Giovanni Battista Recurti, 1724. 286 x 208 mm. (uncut). Original carta rustica boards, spine repaired, slight wear. Minor dampstain in upper margins of plates and last approx. 15 leaves, otherwise very good to fine. Extensive scholarly annotations in a legible and attractive 18th-century hand in the margins of several leaves; note on Santorini's death in the same hand on the front pastedown.

First Edition. "Santorini was generally acknowledged as the outstanding anatomist of his time, carefully dissecting and delineating many difficult and complex gross features of the human body, such as facial muscles involved in emotional expression, accessory pancreatic ducts, and duodenal papillae. His name has been given to some of these structures, such as the arytenoid cartilages (1724), the risorius muscle, and the plexus pudendalis venosus . . . His most important work was Observationes anatomicae, a valuable exposition of details of human anatomy" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). The four major anatomical discoveries for which Santorini is known eponymically—Santorini's cartilage (larynx), Santorini's vein, Santorini's duct (pancreas) and Santorini's caruncula (pancreas / bile duct)—are described in this work.

This copy of Santorini's Observationes anatomicae bears numerous marginal annotations and corrections in Latin by an anonymous but remarkably erudite 18th-century medical scholar. Many of the notes are so long and detailed that they appear to represent an ongoing writing project—possibly in preparation for a future corrected edition, although no such edition was ever published (the text in the 1739 second edition of Santorini's work is unchanged from the first edition). The manuscript notes appear on 34 pages throughout the text; the most extensive notes are on pages 4-5, 63, 98-99, 108, 147, 148-149 and 160. The notes on pages 98-99 are of particular interest in that they comment on (and possibly dispute) Santorini's description of the laryngeal cartilages. Also remarkable are the notes on pp. 148-149, which comment on Santorini's description of pulmonary circulation. The notes cite the works of over a dozen medical writers, including Eustachius, Morgagni, Falloppio, Fabricius, Heister, Valverde, Vesalius, Columbo, Cesalpino, Diemerbroeck, Bartholin and Estienne. A few of the notes are dated 1738. The inscription on the inside front cover gives the date of Santorini's death as May 7, 1737 ("die Maij septima A.D. MDCCXXXVII") and states that he died of a periodic intermittent fever ("febre periodica intermittente"). Garrison-Morton 392.