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BERRETTINI, Pietro, da Cortona.

Tabulae anatomicae. . . delineatae. .T. et a cajetano Petrioli Romano. . . notis Illustratae.

Rome: Antonio de Rossi for Fausto Amidei, 1741.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Large Folio. Very Good. Item #002651

Large folio (436 x 297 mm). [4], 84 pp. Title printed in red and black, engraved vignette on title-page, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, 27 engraved anatomical plates by Luca Ciamberlano. Fine contemporary cat's-paw calf, spine richly gilt in compartments (boards repaired at extremities), red-coloured edges, marbled endpapers. A few small marginal wormholes, some slight browning and marginal spotting, faint dampstaining to upper margin of few leaves, finger soiling to title and a few other pages. Provenance: Libreria Antiquaria Mediolanum (small ticket to front pastedown). A fine, wide-margined copy. ----

NLM/Blake 42; Choulant-Frank, pp. 235-39; Garrison-Morton 395.2; Heirs of Hippocrates 470; Wellcome II, 146; Roberts & Tomlinson, The Fabric of the Body, pp. 272-79 ; Sappol, Dream Anatomy, p. 9; Norman, The Anatomical Plates of Pietro da Cortona, 1986. - FIRST EDITION. In about 1618, when he was not yet twenty years old, Berrettini prepared a series of twenty anatomical drawings, depicting their subjects in a variety of dramatic poses amongst columns, plinths and arches derived from classical architecture, which remained unpublished until 1741.
"Many of the dissected men hold oval or rectangular medallions - they look like framed mirrors - within which are drawn figures detailing the anatomy of various regions. Others have no accessory figures" (Roberts & Tomlinson, p. 273). Gaetano Petrioli must have decided to publish them because of the high reputation of Berrettini's art in the eighteenth century. Petrioli's edition contained the original twenty plates (nos. I-XIX and XXVII) plus seven others with figures copied from Vesalius, Vesling, Casserio and others, along with commentary supplied by Petrioli. As a supplement, to enhance the unity of Berrettini's plates, Petrioli also had them embellished with numerous smaller anatomical figures taken from Vesalius, Valverde, and others, "engraved in an incongruous manner wherever there was sufficient space on the plate" (Roberts & Tomlinson). Berrettini's original drawings were acquired by Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador to the King of Naples, and husband of Admiral Nelson's mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton. In 1772 Hamilton presented them to William Hunter for inclusion in Hunter's anatomical museum. They are now in the Hunterian Collection at University of Glasgow Library.

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