TWO GEMS OF 16TH-CENTURY ANATOMY An attractive combination of two groundbreaking anatomical works of the Renaissance, bound together by an early owner, likely a physician or a student of medicine. The second edition, first German printing, of Falloppio’s critic commentary on Vesalius’s Fabrica is paired with the third edition of Vasse’s influential dissection manual, first printed in Paris in 1540. In his Observationes , Gabriele Falloppio (1523– 1562) had the audacity to point out the errors in the treatise of his teacher and predecessor in the chair of anatomy at Padua, Andrea Vesalius. Falloppio’s essay, published at his own expense, improves Vesalius’s description of the course of certain cerebral arteries and of the auditory apparatus, but it also contains a large amount of new anatomical observations, such as the first thorough examination of the Fallopian tubes and the first clear description of primary dentition; it also gives the placenta and vagina their present scientific names. In his letter responding to Falloppio’s comments, Vesalius praised his pupil’s work, stating that “It might almost be called an appendix to my De Humani Corporis Fabrica” . In anatomen corporis humani contains the first codification of the correct sequence of steps to follow when performing a dissection. Loys Vasse was a student of the famous French anatomist Jacobus Sylvius, and in this manual he advocates for his teacher’s rigourous method: “begin with the stomach organs and then proceed to the chest organs and connected muscle layers, the head and brain, and finally the limbs with their muscles” (Cazort et al., pp. 24–5). Vasse used a precise nomenclature system, and “established the tradition of multilingual terminology in Latin, Greek, and (where the terms existed) Arabic” (ibid., 25). The absence of illustrations, not at all uncommon at this time in medical manuals, is here compensated by a clever use of diagrams with braces, which arrange the text schematically to show the relations between the body parts. This third edition contains new revisions by Anton Stupanus. 2 works in 1 volume, octavo (161 × 95 mm). C .1600 vellum and endpapers, early manuscript title to flat spine, yapp edges. Printer’s device to title pages and verso of last leaf of second work, woodcut historiated and floriated initials. 20th- century bookplates of the Italian physician and collector Piergiorgio Borio to front pastedown, early ownership inscription “Faulconnier” to title page. Covers and spine a bit soiled in places but bright and firm, intermittent light waterstains to upper outer corners, otherwise internally crisp and clean. Very good and well-margined copies. ¶ 1)
SIGNED LIMITED EDITION, FROM THE PRESS OF THE GREAT PRINTER GIOVANNI MARDERSTEIG First Bodoni edition, number 30 of 290 copies signed by the poet on the limitation leaf, and a magnificent piece of book production executed in Verona under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig, the greatest printer of the 20th century. The four poems were first separately published in 1940, 1941, and 1942. Quarto. Original white quarter parchment, spine lettered in gilt, marbled sides ruled in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Housed in the publisher’s marbled slipcase. Couple of spots of foxing to spine, slight rubbing to extremities, internally fresh. A near-fine, bright copy in the slipcase, a little rubbed with a couple of short splits but entirely sound. ¶ Gallup A43c. £4,500 [155321] Gabriele. Observationes anatomicae; [bound with] LOYS, Vasse. In anatomen corporis humani tabulae quatuor. Cologne & Venice: heirs of Arnold Birkmann; Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1562 & 1549 48 FALLOPPIO,
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Adams F143; Morton 1208 (1st ed.); Heirs of Hippocrates 207 (1st ed.). 2) Adams 300 (1st ed.); Durling 4547; USTC 862104. M. Cazort, M. Kornell, K. B. Roberts , The Ingenious Machine of Nature: Four Centuries of Art and Anatomy , 1996. £3,750 [150778] 49 FERMOR, Patrick Leigh. A Time To Keep Silence. London: The Queen Anne Press, 1953 A LOVELY EXAMPLE OF THIS MEDITATIVE WORK First edition, a beautiful copy of Leigh Fermor’s characteristically pensive and considered travelogue of the monasteries of Europe. This is one of 450 copies bound in buckram from a total edition of 500 copies, this copy unnumbered. Much of the text is made up of letters written from Fermor to Joan Elizabeth Rayner, who he married in 1968. The monasteries include the Rock Monasteries of Cappadocia in Turkey and the Abbey of St Wandrille de Fontanelle. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt on red ground, gilt Queen Anne Press initials on boards, top edge red, other untrimmed. With dust jacket. Title page printed in blue and black, chapter initials in red. Full-page frontispiece, and 3 illustrations by John Craxton. Hint of rubbing at spine ends, a near-fine copy, contents clean and fresh, in the like jacket, not price-clipped, spine lightly browned, a couple of nicks to panel edges. £1,250 [155059]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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