pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

21 of 24 engraved plates, lacking tabs iv, v and xxiii, replaced
with copies taken from other editions: engraved arms of the
dedicatee, Pierre de Roussy, archbishop of Narbonne, engraved
portrait of the author signed ‘Math: Boulanger Fe.’ and 22 anatomical
plates signed ‘Beaudeau sculpsit. monsp’, 16 folding, several made up
of 2 or more sheets pasted together, numbered continuously with the
engravings printed in the text.
There are 30 anatomical illustrations in all, numbered I–XXX, signed
‘Beaudeau sculpsit Monsp.’ except XX and XXX unsigned.
341 x 220mm. A few leaves lightly browned. A Wne fresh clean and
large copy.
Binding: Eighteenth­century English panelled calf. Neat repairs to
joints and head and tail caps; corners worn.
Provenance: Thomas Symonds of Pengethley with his signature,
purchase price 30s, engraved bookplate, notes and inserted index (see
below).
First edition (some copies dated 1685). An ‘editio novissima’ was printed
by Certe in 1716. There was a Frankfurt reprint in 1690 and an edition
printed at Toulouse in 1775. Wellcome V, p. 350 (1685 titlepage);
Krivatsy 12403 (1685 titlepage); Garison–Morton 1379; Norman
Library 2153; LeFanu, Notable Medical Books in the Lilly Library p. 95;
En français dans le texte 120.
The best description and illustrations of the nervous system made in the seventeenth
century. Based on 500 dissections, all the illustrations are life size.
‘It was illustrated with thirty particularly Wne engravings by Jean Beaudeau,
most of them on foldout pages larger than the pages of the book. It also
contained a splendid portrait of the author by Boulanger. Vieussens was an
untiring dissector, and his work revealed the structure and arrangement of
the nervous system better than any predecessor in addition to recording new
and correct observations. For example, he showed that the spinal cord was
an independent structure, not merely an appendage of the brain, and he Wrst
deWned the contrum ovale’. (LeFanu.)
‘Vieussens, professor at Montpellier, was the Wrst to describe the centrum
ovale correctly. The publication of the above work threw new light on the
subject of the conWguration and structure of the brain, spinal cord, and
nerves.’ (Garrison–Morton).
The two largest plates (Tabs XXVIII and XXIX) are each made up of 6
sheets pasted together. In order to show both the left and right sides of the
body, the left hand side of the plate is made up from the direct impressions
of three engravings, the right hand side from counter­proofs of the same
plates. The majority of the plates are signed ‘Beaudeau sculpsit Monsp.’
The engraver was thus presumably working directly in Montpellier under
Vieussens’ direction. Le Fanu supplies a forename, ‘Jean’, but I can Wnd no
other information on Beaudeau. The portrait and ‘JC’ monogram device on
the title are probably both by Mathieu Boulanger, who signed the portrait.
Bénézit lists an engraver of this name active in Paris in the seventeenth century
but gives no other details.
In some copies the date on the titlepage is 1685; both titles have the words