Paving the way to X-ray CT: Pirogov's monumental atlas of frozen human cross-sections

PIROGOV, Nikolai Ivanovich.

Anatome topographica sectionibus per corpus humanum congelatum triplici directione ductis illustrata.

St. Petersburg: Typis Jacobi Trey, 1852.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002716

1852-1859. 8 parts in 1 text volume and 4 parts in 1 atlas volume. Text vol.: 4to (263 x 168 mm), [2], xiv, 248, 75 [1], 28, 39 [1], 90, 60, 74, 168 pp. Atlas vol.: elephant folio (566 x 375 mm), comprising 4 parts in 13 fascicules with a total of 220 lithographic plates, of which 14 doubled page and one folding (some sheets present with two plate numbers each), lacking the 4 part titles, plates partly untrimmed and of various sizes, one oversize plate bound in as double-page and laid down on white paper. Later three-quarter calf over marbled boards, spines titled in blind (light rubbing to extremities, corners slightly bumped). Text volume internally little age-toned only, otherwise crisp and clean; atlas volume with occasional scattered foxing (some plates stronger) and marginal dust-soiling, a few plates trimmed close or shaved a few mm, a few short tears without loss, occsional annotations in light pencil. ----

EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION INCLUDING BOTH THE TEXT- AND ATLAS VOLUME. "Pirogov was the greatest of all Russian surgeons. In Russian medicine he is approached only by Pavlov. He introduced the teaching of applied topographical anatomy in Russia. His great atlas of 220 plates represents the first use on a grand scale of frozen sections in anatomical illustration, an idea first carried out by de Riemer" (Garrison-M). Pirogov's frozen cross-sections bear a close resemblance to modern images produced through computed tomography (CT), and may be appreciated as the first comprehensive record of how the body could be viewed in this way. "The first volume consists of life-size sections of the head, most in transverse planes; the second contains transverse and sagittal sections of the thorax; the third transverse, sagittal and frontal sections of the abdominal cavity in both sexes; the fourth sections in three planes through the extremities and their joints." (Choulant).
"Pirogov's further unusual and independent studies of an anatomy, carried out at Tartu from 1835 to 1840, and in Petersburg from 1841 to 1856, were published in Latin in eight parts... This atlas contained [lithographies] based on cross-sections of frozen corpses, a technique apparently invented by P. de Riemer in the Netherlands in 1818, and also, independently, by Pirogov, and published by him in this atlas. The technique enabled him to investigate the relationship of structures as they actually exist in a body undisturbed by dissection. Pirogov's dedication to his work has been widely noted: it has been said that he made 12000 autopsies while Professor at the Medical-Surgical Academy of Peterburg." (Roberts & Tomlinson, p.576).
Our copy collates with the digitized Heidelberg copy, except that the Heidelberg copy lacks plate 22 in fasc. 2 and plate 12bis (the second half of the double-page) in Fasc. 2A. Part 1 contains 51 plates subdivided into fasc. 1, 1A, 1B and appendix, part 2 has 44 plates subdivided into fasc. 2, 2A, and 2B, part 3 has 90 plates subdivided in fasc. 3, 3A, and 3B and Part 4 has 35 plates subdivided in fasc. 4, 4A, and 4B.
Since Pirogov's text was published in a much smaller format six years after the atlas, it is likely that few copies of the atlas would be associated with the accompanying text and in fact we cannot trace any copy at auction that had both, the text and the atlas volume. The only copy of the atlas volume only (incomplete lacking 2 part titles) has been the Dean Edell copy (sold at Christie's in 2015 for USD 11,250).
References: Garrison-M. 416, 615; Choulant, p.408; Roberts & Tomlinson, The fabric of the Body, p.576-7; Hirsch-H. IV. -.

Price: 27,000 €  *  convert currency