Milestones of Science Books

FABRICI, Girolamo (FABRICIUS AB AQUAPENDENTE, Hieronymus).

Tractatus De respiratione & eius instrumentis. De Ventriculo intestinis, & gula. De Motu locali animalium, secundum totum. De Musculi artificio, & ossium dearticulationibus. Cum indice rerum copiosissimo.

Padua: Antonii Meglietti, 1625.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002673

Four parts in one volume (complete). 4to (205 x 150 mm). [8], [2], 118, [2] pp. (signatures: pi1, pi4, A-P4); [4], 1-42, [2], 43-184 (i.e. 174) pp. (signatures: pi² A-E⁴ F² G-Y⁴ Z²); [2], 123 (i.e. 121) [1], 32 pp. (signatures: A-P⁴ Q², ²A-D⁴); [8], 214 pp. (signatures: a⁴, A-Z⁴ Aa-Dd⁴). General collection title, dated 1625, with printer's woodcut device. De respiratone without separate title, with Index leaf bound in front and unnumbered leaf bound at end with errata on recto and colophon on verso dated 1615. De Ventriculo with separate title dated 1618 and publisher Laurentii Pasquati, index to verso of title, errata leaf after title, blank leaf after p.42. De motu locali with separate title dated 1618 and publisher Io. Baptistam de Martinis, index on title verso, separate pagination to De alarum actione. De musculi artificio without separate title, with index bound before numbered pages, two leaves of corrections misbound in front of volume after general title. Contemporary vellum, spine lettered in ink (browning, soiling and spotting of vellum). Lower margin partly untrimmed, minor worming to blank gutter, faint dampstaining to blank fore-margin of few leaves in final part, few pages with markings, gathering Z of final part creased in upper margin, worming to last 3 leaves affecting a few letters of text. Provenance: Jean Blondelet. ----

NLM/Krivatsy 3836; Wellcome I, 2121 (IV), 2122 (II); Waller 2884 (II); D.S.B. IV, p.508. Exceptionally rare collection of early works by Fabrici on animal motion and physiology. OCLC/Worldcat knows of only two copies in the US (National Library of Medicine and University of Wisconsin-Madison). As with the other collected edition by Meglietti published the same year in folio format, individial tracts already printed had been taken and a general title added. All these works on animal anatomy and physiology may be considered as parts of the uncompleted but monumental Totius animalis fabricae theatrum which Fabrici meant to publish and to which he devoted many years. (D.S.B. IV, p.508).
De Motu locali animalium and De Musculi artificio are important works on the mechanics of animal motion by Fabricius, which exerted an influence on Borelli. Includes chapters devoted to walking, swimming, and (16 pages) flying. Fabricius' efforts were to "provide systematic teleological explanations of features of the parts of animals, both similarities and variations among related parts, emphasizing its Galenic and Aristotelian aspects ... Fabricius' use of mechanics [of animal motion] is most conspicuous in his discussion of the utilitates of muscles. It is here that we encounter Fabricius employing a number of more and less abstract diagrams in his analysis of muscles in terms of levers" P.Distelzweig, Descartes's teleomechanics in medical context. Dissertation, Univ. of Pittsburgh, 2013, pp. 50-51).

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