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The great anatomical
atlas of Eustachius, |
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Eustachius was one of the most highly regarded anatomists of his age. " His special contributions to the science were the descriptions of the stirrup bone in the ear and the canal connecting the ear and the mouth, since called by his name. His monograph on the teeth of the child is very complete and has been surpassed only in recent years. In myology he worked out the insertions and attachment of the sterno-eleido-mastoid muscle, of the coccygeus, the splenius of the neck, the levator of the eyelid, and some others. In neurology his descriptions of the cranial nerves is especially full. In abdominal anatomy he added much. His description of the foetal circulation was the most complete up to his time and it was he who recognized the valve on the left side of the opening of the inferior vena cava which serves to direct the blood from this vessel through the foramen ovale into the left auricle. This constitutes the most important distinctive structural difference between the circulatory apparatus of the adult and the child and is called the Eustachian valve... Morgagni and Haller declared that there was not a part of the body on whose structure he had not shed light" (Catholic Encyclopedia). |
| EUSTACHIUS, Bartholomeo. Tabulae
Anatomicae. Edited by Giovanni Maria Lancisi. Rome: Francesco Gonzaga, 1714.
Folio (384 x 356 mm), contemporary full calf with elaborately
gilt-decorated spine. $12,000.
First edition, a wide-margined copy, of the great anatomical atlas of Eustachius, complete with engraved title vignette after Pier Leone Ghezze and 47 full-page copperplate engravings by Giulio de' Musi after drawings by Eustachius and Pier Matteo Pini. The 47 anatomical drawings of Eustachius in the Tabulae Anatomicae were completed by 1552, yet all but 8 were not published in his lifetime. "Had the plates been published at the time they were executed, Eustachi would undoubtedly have ranked with Vesalius as a founder of modern anatomical studies" (Heirs of Hippocrates, 324). In many cases, the drawings of Eustachius are considered to be more accurate than those of Vesalius. It wasn't until the early 18th-century that the plates were found and brought to the attention of Giovanni Maria Lancisi who published them, along with his notes, in the present volume. Choulant-Frank, pp. 200-202; Garrison-Morton 391; Norman 740; Wellcome II, p. 536. Bookplate, foxing to title page and light occasional foxing affecting a few plates, with most plates exceptionally clean. A few minor repairs to binding. A beautiful wide-margined copy in handsome contemporary binding. |
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