Hardcover
1600 · Frankfurt
by ANATOMY. REPRODUCTION. Du Laurens, André (1558-1609)
Frankfurt: apud Matthaeum Beckerum impensis Theodorici de Brii viduae, [date from colophon], 1600. SECOND EDITION (1st ed. Paris 1599). Hardcover. Fine. Illustrated with an engraved title page with a central portrait of the author flanked by cadavers, a quarter-page engraving of Henri IV, King of France, with allegorical figures of Justice and Prudence, and 26 striking full-page anatomical engravings. The text is embellished with attractive 8-line historiated initials. The First edition, printed at Paris by Marc Orry, appeared in two issues. An excellent copy bound in an attractive binding of 18th c. sprinkled calfskin, the spine richly tooled in gold (minor wear at corners and lower board edges; very small split at the bottom of the upper hinge. The book is in fine condition, the title carefully backed at the time of rebinding, with inoffensive marginal soiling (and scored through ownership inscription) to the title, a light marginal dampstain to the first three leaves, and some other, very light, scattered stains.
One of the most popular anatomical and medical treatises of the late 16th c. The beautifully executed engravings are inspired by Vesalius, Valverde, Coiter, and others. Most of the material from Du Laurens’ earlier work, “Opera anatomica” (Lyons, 1593) has been incorporated into this new work.
Du Laurens served as personal physician to King Henri IV and Maria de Medici. In 1603 he became chancellor of the University of Montpellier, where he had served as chair of medicine from 1582, but continued to reside at court in Paris. Du Laurens refuted the Galenic assertion that women’s genitals were merely internalized versions of the male genitalia. He based his rejection on a detailed analysis and description of the respective anatomical structures. That analysis is found in Book VII of his “Historia Anatomica.”(See below).
The work is divided into 12 books as follows: I. An overview of the study of anatomy, its history, utility, and importance; II. The skeletal system. III. Cartilage, membranes, ligaments; IV. Veins, arteries, blood vessels, nerves; V. Flesh, viscera, glands, muscles; VI. The digestive system; VII. The reproductive system; VIII. The development of the fetus; IX. The pulmonary organs; X. The head and brain; XI. The sense organs; XII. The hands and feet.
“The twelve books of the ‘Historia’ include not only descriptions of the structures, actions, and functions of the bodily parts, but also 178 ‘controversies’ in which are discussed disputed questions, such as whether the brain is the seat of a principal faculty…. [The book’s] anatomical descriptions were concise and lucid, while the controversies provided a comprehensive survey of the various positions in disputed points of anatomy and physiology.”(Bylebyl, Dictionary of Scientific Biography)
The Plates:
A number of the anatomical plates published by Du Laurens ultimately derive from Vesalius’ “Fabrica”(1543) and thus played a role in the further dissemination of Vesalius’ iconic images well into the 17th century. In his letter “to the studious reader” Du Laurens explains that he has had the principal figures re-engraved from the plates of other works, because his occupations at court did not allow him to have them drawn himself, as he had planned. As for the new images added by Du Laurens, he tells us that any errors found in them must be attributed to the draftsman and engraver (‘pictori et sculptori’), as will be clearly seen from the text of his book. The images taken from others (‘aliorum icones’), two of them by the Flemish engraver Jacob de Weert, are copied from Jacques Guillemeau’s ‘Tables anatomiques’ (1586). Guillemeau’s images themselves were copies -with some changes- of the plates in the 1560 Venice edition of Juan Valverde’s ‘Anatomia del corpo umano’, which were based on the woodcuts in Vesalius “Fabrica”(1543).
“Four of Du Laurens’ engravings appear to be original. One of these, the ‘Tabula haec veram spinalis medullae et nervorum ab ea prodeuntium effigiem exprimit’, is now famous for depicting the intradural spinal nerves as a horsetail, leading to the addition of the term ‘cauda equina’ to the anatomical lexicon. A less flamboyant figure from the same plate shows small blood vessels coursing over the surface of the cervical spinal cord. This drawing may be the first published depiction of anterior spinal arteries and veins.”(Gailloud, “Early depiction of anterior spinal arteries and veins in André du Laurens’s Historia anatomica humani corporis”)
Male and Female Genitalia, and Human Reproduction:
Of the 26 striking full-page anatomical engravings in the book, three depict the female reproductive system. Du Laurens refuted the Galenic assertion that women’s genitals were merely internalized versions of the male genitalia. He based his rejection on a detailed analysis and description of the respective anatomical structures. The relevant analyses are found in Book VII, “In which the male and female organs of procreation are accurately described and, following that, controversies concerning them are addressed.” It is in question VIII that the differences between male and female genitalia are discussed. Summarizing his extensive discussion, Du Laurens wrote, “no similarity comes in between the vagina and the male penis; none between the uterus and the scrotum; neither in the structure, form and size of the testicles the same, nor in the distribution and insertion of the spermatic vessels.”(trans. by Thomas Laqueur)
The next book, Book VIII, concerns all aspects of human reproduction: menstruation, the nature of semen (and whether women also produce some form of it), conception, sexual differentiation, the formation and growth of the fetus in the womb (including sections on deformities and hermaphroditism), how the gestating fetus receives nourishment, the health of the mother, etc. The drawing for the plate of fetal skeletons is by the Swiss physician Felix Platter (d. 1614) after an earlier drawing by the Dutch surgeon Volcher Coiter (d. 1576). (Inventory #: 5191)
One of the most popular anatomical and medical treatises of the late 16th c. The beautifully executed engravings are inspired by Vesalius, Valverde, Coiter, and others. Most of the material from Du Laurens’ earlier work, “Opera anatomica” (Lyons, 1593) has been incorporated into this new work.
Du Laurens served as personal physician to King Henri IV and Maria de Medici. In 1603 he became chancellor of the University of Montpellier, where he had served as chair of medicine from 1582, but continued to reside at court in Paris. Du Laurens refuted the Galenic assertion that women’s genitals were merely internalized versions of the male genitalia. He based his rejection on a detailed analysis and description of the respective anatomical structures. That analysis is found in Book VII of his “Historia Anatomica.”(See below).
The work is divided into 12 books as follows: I. An overview of the study of anatomy, its history, utility, and importance; II. The skeletal system. III. Cartilage, membranes, ligaments; IV. Veins, arteries, blood vessels, nerves; V. Flesh, viscera, glands, muscles; VI. The digestive system; VII. The reproductive system; VIII. The development of the fetus; IX. The pulmonary organs; X. The head and brain; XI. The sense organs; XII. The hands and feet.
“The twelve books of the ‘Historia’ include not only descriptions of the structures, actions, and functions of the bodily parts, but also 178 ‘controversies’ in which are discussed disputed questions, such as whether the brain is the seat of a principal faculty…. [The book’s] anatomical descriptions were concise and lucid, while the controversies provided a comprehensive survey of the various positions in disputed points of anatomy and physiology.”(Bylebyl, Dictionary of Scientific Biography)
The Plates:
A number of the anatomical plates published by Du Laurens ultimately derive from Vesalius’ “Fabrica”(1543) and thus played a role in the further dissemination of Vesalius’ iconic images well into the 17th century. In his letter “to the studious reader” Du Laurens explains that he has had the principal figures re-engraved from the plates of other works, because his occupations at court did not allow him to have them drawn himself, as he had planned. As for the new images added by Du Laurens, he tells us that any errors found in them must be attributed to the draftsman and engraver (‘pictori et sculptori’), as will be clearly seen from the text of his book. The images taken from others (‘aliorum icones’), two of them by the Flemish engraver Jacob de Weert, are copied from Jacques Guillemeau’s ‘Tables anatomiques’ (1586). Guillemeau’s images themselves were copies -with some changes- of the plates in the 1560 Venice edition of Juan Valverde’s ‘Anatomia del corpo umano’, which were based on the woodcuts in Vesalius “Fabrica”(1543).
“Four of Du Laurens’ engravings appear to be original. One of these, the ‘Tabula haec veram spinalis medullae et nervorum ab ea prodeuntium effigiem exprimit’, is now famous for depicting the intradural spinal nerves as a horsetail, leading to the addition of the term ‘cauda equina’ to the anatomical lexicon. A less flamboyant figure from the same plate shows small blood vessels coursing over the surface of the cervical spinal cord. This drawing may be the first published depiction of anterior spinal arteries and veins.”(Gailloud, “Early depiction of anterior spinal arteries and veins in André du Laurens’s Historia anatomica humani corporis”)
Male and Female Genitalia, and Human Reproduction:
Of the 26 striking full-page anatomical engravings in the book, three depict the female reproductive system. Du Laurens refuted the Galenic assertion that women’s genitals were merely internalized versions of the male genitalia. He based his rejection on a detailed analysis and description of the respective anatomical structures. The relevant analyses are found in Book VII, “In which the male and female organs of procreation are accurately described and, following that, controversies concerning them are addressed.” It is in question VIII that the differences between male and female genitalia are discussed. Summarizing his extensive discussion, Du Laurens wrote, “no similarity comes in between the vagina and the male penis; none between the uterus and the scrotum; neither in the structure, form and size of the testicles the same, nor in the distribution and insertion of the spermatic vessels.”(trans. by Thomas Laqueur)
The next book, Book VIII, concerns all aspects of human reproduction: menstruation, the nature of semen (and whether women also produce some form of it), conception, sexual differentiation, the formation and growth of the fetus in the womb (including sections on deformities and hermaphroditism), how the gestating fetus receives nourishment, the health of the mother, etc. The drawing for the plate of fetal skeletons is by the Swiss physician Felix Platter (d. 1614) after an earlier drawing by the Dutch surgeon Volcher Coiter (d. 1576). (Inventory #: 5191)
(202) 907-7429
