Tabulae Anatomicae

London, England: Druckerei Holzer, Weiler im Allgau, for the Editions Medicina Rara Ltd, 1975. Limited Edition Reprint. Hardcover. Fine. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. A brilliant facsimile exemplar of the Anatomicae Tabulae by Eustachius built upon reproduction of the copper-plate engraved illustrations done originally by Giulio de'Musi, "a Roman artist under the direction of Eustachius and his assistant [and relative] Pier Matteo Pini of Urbino" (K.B. Roberts) after the anatomical investigations of Eustachius done over a century and a half prior. The text that would have accompanied the plates was either never written or was lost and remains a mystery; later editors and publishers had perforce to supply an anatomical commentary. Eustachius was "physician to the Duke of Urbino and then to his brother, Cardinal Giuilio d'ella Rovere, in whose service he remained" until his death in 1574, having taught medicine and anatomy in the medical school at Rome (the Sapienza), probably his own Alma Mater (K.B. Roberts). The work was published first in 1714 under his Latin name Bartholomaei Eustachi[i], but had been completed 140 years prior. This exemplar was published in 1975 by Editions Medicina Rara Ltd. (T. Laqueur), London, printed for them by Druckerei Holzer, Weiler im Allgau, from a binding in full burgundy calfskin leather done for them in Stuttgart, West Germany, at the bindery of Richard Mayer. This copy is from the library of eminent Sydney, New South Wales neurosurgeon Dr John Sheehy, an uncommonly accomplished book collector and medico-legal authority, according to the previous owner, the noted paleographer and squidinkulist Andrea Boltresz. Currently only one additional copy available on-line of this Special Limited Reprint Edition of 2500 copies that was split further into an edition of only 300 done in full leather, this being Copy #CCLXVI (#166). Tall folio format, measuring 14" tall and 10" wide. Spine augmented with five raised bands, gilt titling in compartments, quite sharply done, fine publisher's device also in gilt at front cover, perhaps an artistic take on a system of body parts? The black-and-white plates are reproduced from a copy of the original 1714 "Lancisi edition" that belonged once to the so-called Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart (says the colophon), "Lancisi" being D. J. Mariam Lancisium, physician to Pope Clement, thanked profusely and multiply at Preface and elsewhere. This copy is in Fine condition, marred only by one slightly noticeable and three extremely faint hints of foxing at fore-edge. Housed in the publisher's original paper-covered cardboard slipcase that has performed well. Text wholly in Latin, a deep, sharp, satisfying bite of the font to the brilliant special-made paper of Papierfabrik Scheufelen, Oberlenningen, West Germany. Illustrations are each numbered in Roman numerals and in full-page format, and with full-page legend opposite, detailing each of the numbered parts of anatomy depicted herein, from heart valves to limbic arteries, musculature to facial expressions, blood to organs, tissue to muscles. The author, Bartolomeo Eustachii (c. 1500-1510 - 1574) was an Italian anatomist and is said to be one of the Holy Trinity of the science of human anatomy and physiology (Eustachius, Vesalius and the "other" Columbus) and whose founders disagreed mightily on both empirical and ideal-philosophical conceptions of the body including Aristotle, Galen, Fallopius, and other giants. Ione writes, "As noted, the Egyptian, Biblical, and early Greek thinkers largely assigned cognition and sensation to the heart, rather than the brain" (Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 2010). Somewhat strangely, for Eustachius, though an empiricist, his illustrations based on dissections of cadavers that took place on an anatomy table. Whereas the figures of Vesalius "attempt to copy the natural appearance of anatomical structures," says K.B. Roberts, "Eustachius' figures are maps of human anatomy . . . " Eustachius is most famous for revealing the vena caval ("Eustachian valve") and the thoracic canal, for theorizing the difference between healthy and disease-altered organs, and after him was named the Eustachian tube that drains the ear. The illustrations here resulted from his collaboration with his relative and his pupil, Pier Matteo Pini; together they produced nearly four dozen detailed anatomical drawings of the organs and muscles involved, named the Tabulae Anatomicae Clariviri (T. Laqueur, K.B. Roberts et al.). xliv, [1], 1-115 pp. then Index Rerum, & Verborum, Emendanda, et Addenda, plus colophon. All in, a most handsome, tall volume paying due homage to 16th-century anatomy and physiology, art and collaboration.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.