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Lot 37
COWPER, WILLIAM. 1731-1800. Anatomia corporum humanorum. Leyden: Johann Arnold Langerak, 1739.
11 December 2020, 10:00 EST
New YorkUS$4,000 - US$6,000
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COWPER, WILLIAM. 1731-1800.
Anatomia corporum humanorum. Leyden: Johann Arnold Langerak, 1739.
Folio (540 x 380 mm). Engraved printer's device on title, large decorative initials and tailpieces, extra engraved title and 114 plates of anatomical figures (three folding). Contemporary red quarter vellum over marbled boards, raised bands, edges untrimmed. Vellum on spine worn, with three 35 mm pieces broken away, boards chafed, one folding plate with 25 mm closed tear into image (with no loss).
FIRST EDITION IN LATIN, translated by William Dundass. With plates of notable visual impressiveness, this was the finest anatomy book in England during the first half of the 18th century; it also was largely a plagiarism, borrowing most of its engraved content from a work by the Dutch physician Govert Bidloo published in 1685. Bidloo's work was the first large-scale anatomical atlas to appear after Vesalius' epoch-making "De Humani Corporis Fabrica," and the plates are characterized by startlingly detailed depictions of the human body (both adult and infant), with figures flayed to reveal muscles, opened to show organs, and unfleshed to exhibit bones. Cowper took Bidloo's original 105 plates, added nine of his own, and produced an English translation of the original Latin text to accompany them. When Cowper's version of the atlas first appeared as "The Anatomy of Humane Bodies" in London in 1698 (there was also a 1737 Leyden printing in English before our more scholarly Latin edition), Bidloo complained to the Royal Society and accused Cowper of plagiarism and fraud, resulting in much acrimony and heated pamphleteering between the two physicians. This copy is distinguished by its size, which is significantly larger than what is typically seen with this edition. Choulant-Frank, pp 252-3; Heirs of Hippocrates 468; Wellcome II, 401.
Folio (540 x 380 mm). Engraved printer's device on title, large decorative initials and tailpieces, extra engraved title and 114 plates of anatomical figures (three folding). Contemporary red quarter vellum over marbled boards, raised bands, edges untrimmed. Vellum on spine worn, with three 35 mm pieces broken away, boards chafed, one folding plate with 25 mm closed tear into image (with no loss).
FIRST EDITION IN LATIN, translated by William Dundass. With plates of notable visual impressiveness, this was the finest anatomy book in England during the first half of the 18th century; it also was largely a plagiarism, borrowing most of its engraved content from a work by the Dutch physician Govert Bidloo published in 1685. Bidloo's work was the first large-scale anatomical atlas to appear after Vesalius' epoch-making "De Humani Corporis Fabrica," and the plates are characterized by startlingly detailed depictions of the human body (both adult and infant), with figures flayed to reveal muscles, opened to show organs, and unfleshed to exhibit bones. Cowper took Bidloo's original 105 plates, added nine of his own, and produced an English translation of the original Latin text to accompany them. When Cowper's version of the atlas first appeared as "The Anatomy of Humane Bodies" in London in 1698 (there was also a 1737 Leyden printing in English before our more scholarly Latin edition), Bidloo complained to the Royal Society and accused Cowper of plagiarism and fraud, resulting in much acrimony and heated pamphleteering between the two physicians. This copy is distinguished by its size, which is significantly larger than what is typically seen with this edition. Choulant-Frank, pp 252-3; Heirs of Hippocrates 468; Wellcome II, 401.