Milestones of Science Books

CASSERIO, Giulio [CASSERIUS, Julius] / SPIEGEL, Adriaan van de [SPIGELIUS, Adrianus].

Tabulae anatomicae LXXIIX / De humani corporis fabrica libri decem. Edited by Daniel Bucretius / De formato foetu.

Venice / Padua: Evangelista Deuchinus / J.B. Martinis and L. Pasquatus, 1627.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003966

CASSERIO, Giulio [CASSERIUS, Julius]. Tabulae Anatomicae LXXIIX . . . Daniel Bucretius . . . XX que deerant supplevit et omnium explications addidit. Venice: [Evangelista Deuchinus], 1627. [3], 95 (i.e. 97) ff., including engraved title with border as above by Valesio after Fialetti; 97 full-page engravings numbered to 95 (77 of them probably by and after J. Maurer, 20 by Valesio after Fialetti), explanatory text on verso; woodcut ornaments. [Bound after]: SPIEGEL, Adriaan van de [SPIGELIUS, Adrianus]. De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Decem. Edited by Daniel Bucretius. Venice: Evangelista Deuchinus, 1627. [12], 328 (i.e. 330), [12] pp., including engraved title with architectural border by F. Valesio after O. Fialetti; woodcut initials and ornaments; general index; lacking the final blank Vv4. Signatures: [cross]⁶ A-Vv⁴. [Bound after]: SPIEGEL, Adriaan van de [SPIGELIUS, Adrianus]. De formato foetu liber singularis aeneis figuris exornatus epistolae duae anatomicae. Tractatus de arthritide opera posthumastudio. . . Padua: Martini et Pasquati, (1626). [8], 104 pp., including 9 full-page engraved illustrations by Giulio Casserio, drawn and engraved by Odoardo Fialetti and Francesco Valesio, woodcut device on title-page. Signatures: a-b² A-2C². Three works in one volume. Folio (388 x 250 mm). Bound in 18th-century half calf and marbled paper over boards (rebacked). First two works are bound mixed up, beginning with the engraved title and the first 5 preliminary leaves including dedication, verses and index of Spiegel's De Humani Corporis Fabrica, followed by the preliminary appraisal leaf (a2) by Bucretius and the 97 plates of Casserio's Tabulae Anatomicae LXXIIX, followed by Spiegel's text, and ending with the engraved title of Casserio's work. First engraved title-leaf heavily soiled and remargined at gutter just touching plate, printed title with some abrasion; scattered soiling and light dampstaining. Provenance: a few early marginal notes, including one pointing out that the book was "published in the time of Charles the first" - gift inscription of R.B. Preble to Porter S. Dickinson, 25 December 1921. ----

FIRST EDITION OF THE THREE IMPORTANT ANATOMICAL WORK by Casserio and Spiegel which are often found together as here. Some copies of Casserio's Tabulae include an additional preliminary dedication leaf (a1) which is lacking here, as is the case with most copies in public libraries that are bound with the Spiegel parts. Our copy conforms in collation with the digitized University of Iowa copy (see Editions Medicina Rara, 1627).
Pupil and successor to Fabricius ab Acquapendente in the Padua anatomy chair, Casserio (c. 1552-1616) and his pupil Adriaan van der Spiegel (1578-1625) are considered the last great anatomists in the Vesalian tradition. In all, the volume contains 2 allegorical title-frontispieces and 106 splendid copper-engraved anatomical plates which are considered to be among the most accurate and correct anatomical figures of the 17th century and which mark the end of woodcuts in scientific books: "Casserius's plates mark a new epoch in the history of anatomic representation, owing to the correctness of their anatomic drawing, their tasteful arrangement, and the beauty of their technical execution" (Choulant, p. 228).
The set includes: the first edition of Casserio's anatomical tables, magnificently illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece and 77 plates by Joseph Maurer, Odoardo Fialetti, a pupil of Titian, engraved on copper by Francesco Valesio. These engravings, which were to cover the entire spectrum of human anatomy, had been commissioned by Casserio for his great and unfortunately unfinished work, the Theatrum anatomicum. His publisher, the physician Daniel Rindfleisch (Bucretius), had 20 plates added by the same tandem when Adriaan Van de Spiegel (or Spigelius), Casserio's pupil and successor at the chair of anatomy in Padua, expressed the wish in his last will and testament that his unillustrated manuscript be published by Bucretius together with the plates commissioned by his master. Bucretius had a frontispiece engraved for the text, very similar to that of Casserio's plates. The two works, Casserio's plates and Spigelius' text, thus form a whole, in accordance with Spigelius' wishes. - the very rare first edition of Spigelius' treatise on the pregnant woman, illustrated with 9 engravings showing fetuses visible in the uterus of women standing in landscapes, the means of fetal nutrition, the role of the placenta . . . commissioned by Casserio.
Casserio and van der Spiegel worked closely with their teacher Fabricius ab Aquapendente for many years, and in 1608 Casserio succeeded Fabricius in Padua University's chair of surgery and anatomy, which passed in turn to Spiegel upon Casserio's death in 1616. Spiegel wrote an unillustrated treatise on anatomy that remained unpublished during his lifetime; in his will he appointed Daniel Bucretius to see the work into print. To illustrate Spiegel's treatise, Bucretius obtained 77 of Fialetti's original 86 anatomical plates from his Casserio heirs, and commissioned 20 more by Fialetti and Valesio to complete the series (the remaining 9 plates left by Casserio were used to illustrate Spiegel's De Formato Foetu). "In the complete series, the largest number of plates, forty-three-and these perhaps the most memorable-are to be found in Liber IV, on the muscles. There are also interesting illustrations on the genito-urinary system in Liber VIII and on the brain in Liber X - one of these, showing the arterial circle at the brain, predates the Willis-Wren illustration" (Roberts & Tomlinson, p. 262). "Except for those few plates which were derived from Vesalius, the anatomists - Casserio first and Bucretius later - had reconsidered ways of presenting human anatomy. In doing so they produced the first original series of illustrations of the anatomy of the human body since Vesalius, Estienne and Eustachio" (Roberts & Tomlinson, p. 263).
References & Bibliography: Roberts & Tomlinson, The Fabric of the Body, pp. 259-271; Cazort, Kornell, Roberts, The Ingenious Machine of Nature: Four Centuries of Art and Anatomy (1996) pp. 167-68; Choulant-Frank 225-228; Garrison-Morton 381; Heirs of Hippocrates 414; NLM/Krivatsy 2202; 11297 (citing Casserio's and Spiegel's works separately); Sappol, Dream Anatomy pp. 110-111, 113; Waller 9121 and 1812.

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