The first book with anatomical illustrations printed in color

ASELLI, Gaspare.

De lactibus sive lacteis venis quarto vasorum mesaraicorum genere novo invento... dissertatio.

Milan: Giovanni Battista Bidelli, 1627.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #002148

4to (245 x 188 mm). [8] (of [14], 79 [1], [8] pp., with the engraved author's portrait by Cesare Bassano, 4-leaf Index bound at end. Lacking the engraved title, two blanks and 3 preliminary leaves a2-5. With 3 (of 4) LARGE FOLDING CHIAROSCURO WOODCUT PLATES (lacking plate I), printed in black, dark red and light red bound at the beginning, woodcut initials and head-piece. All pages untrimmed, dampstaining and light browning throughout, occasional spotting, tear to plate IV without loss, minor fraying of leaf edges. Contemporary wrappers (damaged, front cover wanting). -----

Choulant-Frank, pp. 240-241; Garrison-Morton 1094; Grolier Medicine 26; Heirs of Hippocrates 453; NLM/Krivatsy 446; Norman 76; Osler 1846; Waller 502; Wellcome I:6837. - FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST BOOK WITH ANATOMICAL ILLUSTRATIONS PRINTED IN COLOR. In 1662, during a vivisection performed upon a dog that had just fed, Aselli rediscovered the chylous or lacteal vessels, which Galen and Eristratus reported to have been documented by Hippocrates and Aristotle, but which had been overlooked by the anatomists of the sixteenth century. Aselli undertook a systematic study of the vessels in different species of animals, and established the cause and effect relationship of their turgidity with the intake of nourishment. Although he thus recognized their nature and function, he failed to trace them to the thoracic duct, instead mistakenly construing a connection with the liver, still considered the center of the venous system in the decade before publication of Harvey's De motu cordis. Aselli's error was rectified in the 1650s, when three scientists working independently, Jean Pecquet, Thomas Bartholin and Olof Rudbeck, nearly simultaneously discovered the thoracic duct. Harvey himself apparently did not know of Aselli's work. Aselli's report of his findings -- the only one of his studies to appear in print -- was published after his death by his friends Senator Settala and Alessandro Tadino. In its use of color printing to more accurately distinguish the different types of vessels depicted, De lactibus was the "first publication to use colored illustrations in the interest of scientific accuracy" (Grolier Medicine). The striking woodcuts, which appear in this edition only, have been attributed to either Cesare Bassano or to his associate Domenico Falcini. Subsequent editions were illustrated with black and white reduced engraved copies of the original woodcuts.

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