Milestones of Science Books

PASCOLI, Alessandro / BAGLIVI, Georgius.

Il corpo-umano, o breve storia, dove con nuovo metodo si descrivono in compendio tutti gli organi suoi, e i loro principali ufizi / De fibra motrice et morbosa. Epistola ad A. Pascoli.

Perugia / Venice: Constantinus / A. Poletti, 1700.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002923

Il corpo-umano, o breve storia, dove con nuovo metodo si descrivono in compendio tutti gli organi suoi, e i loro principali ufizi. Perugia / Venice: Constantinus / A. Poletti, 1700. [20], 339 (i.e. 341) [1], LXXXVIII pp. Including half-title, engraved allegorical frontispiece facing title, engraved portrait of Pascoli, 20 full-page engraved anatomical illustrations, historiated woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Blank leaves H6 and T6 present. Roman numbered pages with engravings and plate explanations devided within text. Contemporary ink annotation to 6 pages, closed tear at fore-margin of p. VII/VIII, two small pieces torn away from top margin of half title. [bound with] II. BAGLIVI, Georgius. De fibra motrice et morbosa. Epistola ad A. Pascoli. Perugia: Constantinus, 1700. [2] 3-58 pp. Historiated woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, 4 woodcut illustrations in text, bound without final blank G6. Two works in one volume, 4to (208 x 153 mm). Contemporary vellum, gilt-lettered spine (browned, lightly soiled and spotted), blue sprinkled edges. Little age-toning of paper, occasional minor spotting. Provenance: Francisci Lampugnani (old signature on title of first work). Very good copy, complete except for the final blank in second work. ----

I. NLM/Krivatsy 8634; Libr. Vinciana 1994; Wellcome IV, 312; FIRST EDITION. Standard Italian anatomy textbook of the period and the most important work of Alessandro Pascoli (1669-1757), presented as one of the most thorough and exhaustive treatises on the organs of the human body and their specific functions. First published in 1700, it received considerable success so that numerous further editions followed. Pascoli was the public health official of the Vatican State and Primary Lecturer of Medicine at Sapienza University of Rome.
II. Norman 104; Heirs of Hippocrates 737; NLM/Krivatsy 576; DSB I, p.392; Garrison-M. 68. FIRST EDITION. Baglivi's important observations on the muscles were presented in a letter to Pascoli, who published them for the first time in his book of anatomy. He "was the first to distinguish between smooth and striated muscle, and discovered the histological distinction between two types of fibers: the fibrae motrices seu musculares, with parallel fiber bundles; and the fibrae membranaceae, with bundles running in various directions." (Norman 104). "His fundamental research concerning the fibers made him one of the most important students of muscle physiology before Albrecht von Haller" (DSB). - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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