William Hunter's masterpiece

HUNTER,William.

Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata. The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus exhibited in Figures.

Birmingham: John Baskerville, 1774.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #001945

Double folio (629x461 mm), 21 unsigned and unpaginated text leaves, each leaf a single sheet, 34 engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, red morocco label to upper board (spine and hinges expertly repaired, boards rubbed and soiled). Early issue with the plates watermarked. Plates 7, 8, 17 and 23 with repaired marginal tears (without loss), plates 21 and 22 supplied, over-sized plate 8 slightly trimmed at fore-margin. Some occasional spotting (mainly to plate margins) and minor even browning. Provenance: Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, ink-stamp on title. A fine copy printed on strong paper. ----

Choulant-Frank, pp. 296-297; Garrison-Morton 6157; Norman 1125; Waller 5004; Wellcome III, p. 319; Gaskell, Baskerville, 53; Heirs of Hippocrates 942; Jordanova, "Gender, Generation and science: William Hunter's obstetric al atlas," William Hunter and the eighteenth-century world, ed. Bynum and Porter, pp. 385-412; Kornell in Oxford DNB for Rymsdyk; Osler 3026; Roberts & Tomlinson, pp. 460-73; Russell, British Anatomy, 452; Sappol, Dream Anatomy pp. 29 and 44. -

FIRST EDITION. The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, on which Hunter labored sporadically for thirty years, primarily with the artist Jan van Rymsdyk, is one of the great masterpieces of medical graphic art and printing. One of the main reasons for the book's excessively long gestation was Hunter's difficulty in obtaining the cadavers of pregnant women for dissection. By 1751 van Rymsdyk had completed ten of the red pastel drawings, which Hunter exhibited publicly and used in his lectures. The positive reception of the drawings encouraged Hunter to undertake publication of an atlas; however, problems in obtaining dissection material, and the great success of his obstetrical and teaching career, inevitably created delays. Compounding this were Hunter's ambitious plans to expand the atlas, which eventually was published with 34 plates. "It is indeed a remarkable book, not the least important aspect of which is the large size of the plates, which Hunter took care to defend in the preface. For him, the technical quality of the plates was of great importance; they combine descriptive clarity with beauty. The work contains thirty-four plates of different kinds; some depict several objects, others a life-size section of the human body - the female trunk between the abdomen and the middle of the thighs. Some plates are packed with detail, others are more schematic, showing large parts in outline only. Facing each plate are a short description and a key..." (Jordanova, p. 386). Remarkably 17 different engravers were employed producing the 34 plates in Hunter's atlas. Of these Sir Robert Strange engraved only two, but he is thought to have supervised the rest of the group. Strange had studied anatomy at the classes of the first Alexander Monro, and is supposed to have drawn for Monro. In 1750 Strange was working for William Hunter in London. Strange spent time in Paris and Italy, and after 1760 became an art dealer, selling to Hunter a number of master works now in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. According to Roberts & Tomlinson, Strange was knighted in 1787 for engraving "a sentimental picture of two dead royal Princes." In format the Gravid Uterus was the largest book printed by the great printer John Baskerville, and one of two medical books issued from his press; it is also among the very few medical books issued from a private press. The original drawings, from which the engravings were made, are preserved in the Hunterian Collections at the University of Glasgow Library. Like certain other labors of love, sales of Hunter's atlas did not equal the passion of its author. It was originally issued for £6.6s, but remaindered in 1784 after Hunter's death for £3.13s.6d.

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