Giovanni Morgagni: The Seats and Causes of Diseases, first edition

“Beginning with Morgagni and resulting from his work, the dogmatism of the old schools was completely shattered, and that with him the new medicine begins." –Rudolf Virchow

The foundation of pathological anatomy,
“one of the most fundamentally important works in the history of medicine”:

Morgagni’s Seats and Causes of Diseases
Rare 1769 first edition in English

First edition in English of Morgagni's Seats and Causes of Diseases (De Sedibus)

“Vast in scope, it is one of the most fundamentally important works in the history of medicine. In it he reports in precise and exhaustive detail his findings in nearly seven hundred autopsy dissections, introducing and insisting on the concept that diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease must be based on an exact understanding of the pathologic changes in the anatomic structures. It put the final rout to the old humoral pathology. Morgagni's contribution to the understanding of disease may well rank with the contributions of Vesalius in anatomy and Harvey in physiology” (Heirs of Hippocrates).

MORGAGNI, Giovanni Battista. The Seats and Causes of Diseases investigated by Anatomy; in five books, containing a great variety of dissections, with remarks. London: A. Millar, T. Cadell, Johnson and Payne, 1769. Quarto, contemporary full calf rebacked. Three volumes. $5000.

First edition in English of the founding work of modern pathological anatomy, and the only complete translation into English.

“The Origins and Causes of Diseases anatomically investigated, contained reports on an extensive series of post mortems performed by himself, his teacher, Valsalva, and other members of his circle. By comparing the clinical symptoms with the post mortem findings Morgagni laid the foundation of pathological anatomy” (Printing and the Mind of Man, 206). “Despite the modesty of its title- ‘Notes on Anatomy’-Morgagni's book actually records a whole succession of discoveries regarding minute organic mechanisms, including the glands of the trachea, of the male urethra, and of the female genitals. These represent new contributions to the mechanical interpretation of the structure of the organism" (DSB). First published in Latin in 1761. Some foxing to first few leaves of volumes I and II; volume III with light browning to margins. Overall, a very clean set in contemporary calf boards. Rare.