One of the most important works in the history of medicine

MORGAGNI, Giovanni Battista.

De sedibus, et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque.

Venice: ex typographia Remondiniana, 1761.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002390

Two volumes in one. Folio (357 x 230 mm). [10], ix-xcvi, [2] 3-298, [2]; [2] 3-452 pp., including the scarce half-title and final blank to first volume, engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by Jean Renard in first volume, both title-pages with engraved allegorical vignettes, first title printed in red and black. Contemporary calf, spine with 6 raised bands richly gilt in compartments and with label titled in gilt (boards rubbed, corners worn and bumped), red-sprinkled edges. Internally crisp and clean with only very minor marginal spotting and little occasional ink soiling at edges, two leaves (pp.445-8) detached. A fine copy. ----

PMM 206; Dibner 125; Norman 1547; Grolier Medicine 46; Heirs of Hippocrates 792; Wellcome IV, 178; Garrison-M. 2276; NLM/Blake 312; Osler 1178; Waller 6672 - First edition, first issue, of Morgagni's main work and ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORKS IN THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE. "Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy" (Garrison-Morton). Morgagni, Professor of Anatomy at Padua, used evidence from his experience and records of some 700 post-mortem dissections, to establish a procedure of basing diagnosis and treatment on a detailed knowledge of the anatomical conditions of common diseases, i.e. a classification of symptoms rather than diseases. The work includes a number of descriptions of new diseases, many of which have remained classics until recent times. 1st Printing.

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