pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

Binding: Rebound in panelled calf by Bernard
Middleton, edges re­trimmed and sprinkled red and
brown.
First edition. Krivatsy 5602; Norman 1071; Waller
4456; Wellcome III, 263; Garrison–Morton 382;
Russell 416.
The Wrst anatomical textbook to accept Harvey’s
discovery of the circulation of the blood. The book is
dedicated to Harvey.
‘His most important scientiWc contribution is Corpus
humani disquisitio anatomica (1651), containing the Wrst
description of the antrum of Highmore (maxillary sinus,
the largest of the paranasal sinuses) and of the corpus
Highmori (mediastinal testis). Dedicated to William
Harvey, it was the Wrst anatomical textbook to accept
Harvey’s theory of the circulation of the blood; its
frontispiece incorporates an allegorical drawing of this
new theory. Although Highmore’s physiology reXects
the still medieval thinking of his time, the book was
accepted as a standard anatomical textbook for many
years and brought the author immediate recognition
in England and abroad. For instance, Johann Daniel
Horst, chief court physcian of Hesse­Darmstadt, in
asking William Harvey (1665) to undertake a study
of the lymphatic and thoracic ducts, suggested as
an alternative “the most illustrious Dr. Highmore”;
and Boyle spoke of Highmore as “my learned friend,”
quoted his experiments, and referred a knotty
physiological problem to him.’ (J. Else Gordon, DSB,
6:386–7.)
Highmore came from a long line of distinguished
clergymen, doctors, lawyers and one painter, Joseph
Highmore. Nathaniel was educated at Sherborne School
and Trinity College, Oxford.
101
HILL, Nicholas (1570–c. 1610)
Philosophia Epicurea, Democritiana, Theophrastica: proposita
simpliciter, non edocta.
Paris: Apud Rolinum Thierry, via Iacobaea, sub insigne Cochlearis, 1601.
8vo: a4 A–G8 H4 (blank a4), 64 leaves, pp. [8] 118 [2] (errata on last
leaf). Arabesque on title, woodcut headpieces and initials.
First edition. Another edition was printed at Cologne in 1619.
[Bound with:]