first edition
1769 · London
by MORGAGNI, Giovanni Battista
London: Printed for A. Millar; and T. Cadell; and Johnson and Payne, 1769. Full Description:
MORGAGNI, Giovanni Battista. The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy; In Five Books, Containing a Great Variety of Dissections, with Remarks. To Which Are Added Very Accurate and Copius Indexes of the Principal Names and Things Therein Contained. Translated... by Benjamin Alexander, M.D. London: Printed for A. Millar; and T. Cadell; and Johnson and Payne, 1769.
First and only complete edition in English of Morgagni's De Sedibus (1761), a classic work in pathology. Three quarto volumes (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 inches; 264 x 209 mm). xxxii, 868; vi, 770; [vi], 604, [152, index] pp. Volume I lacking leaf A, probably a blank. This first English edition is more rare than the original first edition of 1761.
Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked. Spines elaborately stamped in gilt and each spine with two red morocco labels, lettered in gilt. Top edges dyed brown. Some scuffing and scraping to boards. Corners a bit bumped. A mild dampstain to the bottom margin of signature 4T in volume I. Leaf 3Y4 in volume I with the lower, outer corner torn, but not affecting text. A bit of scattered foxing, but mostly very clean internally. Overall, a very clean copy of this classic work.
"Morgnani was the first to make a complete and systematic correlation between the symptoms of a particular disease and the anatomical lesions found on post-mortem examination" (Norman).
"By this great work, one of the most important in the history of medicine, Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work was completed in Morgagni's 79th year and consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could he correlated the clinical record with the post-mortem finding. Morgagni gave the first descriptions of several pathological conditions... as Vrichow said he introduced the 'anatomical idea' into medical practice. Morgagni gave the first description of cerebral gummata and diseases of the cardiac valves; early accounts of syphilitic aneurysm. acute yellow atrophy of the liver and tuberculosis of the kidney, and the first recorded case of heart block; he emphasized the extreme importance of visceral syphilis and described what is known as the Morgagni cataract. He proved, in many autopsies, the Valsalva dictum that the cerebral lesion in apoplexy is on the opposite side from the resulting paralysis. The Sedibus abolished humoral concepts in pathology for a long period of time" (G-M, p. 353-4).
The translator, Alexander Benjamin, was an Irishman who studied at Leyden and London and later worked at the London Hospital. He died at the early age of thirty-three and is still remembered for his translation of Morgagni's great work, which was published the year after his death.
Morgagni’s De sedibus, et causis morborum, “published when he was seventy-nine years of age, had been years in preparation, and constitutes a foundation of modern pathological anatomy. Vast in scope, it is one of the most fundamentally important works in the history of medicine. In it he reports in precise and exhaustive detail his findings in nearly seven hundred autopsy dissections, introducing and insisting on the concept that diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease must be based on an exact understanding of the pathologic changes in the anatomic structures. It put the final rout to the old humoral pathology. Morgagni’s contribution to the understanding of disease may well rank with the contributions of Vesalius in anatomy and Harvey in physiology” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
Norman Library 1548. Norman Library. Osler 1180. [For first edition of 1761]: Garrison and Morton 2276. Heirs of Hippocrates 501. Printing and the Mind of Man 206. Waller 6672. Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books, p. 125.
HBS 69257.
$5,000. (Inventory #: 69257)
MORGAGNI, Giovanni Battista. The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy; In Five Books, Containing a Great Variety of Dissections, with Remarks. To Which Are Added Very Accurate and Copius Indexes of the Principal Names and Things Therein Contained. Translated... by Benjamin Alexander, M.D. London: Printed for A. Millar; and T. Cadell; and Johnson and Payne, 1769.
First and only complete edition in English of Morgagni's De Sedibus (1761), a classic work in pathology. Three quarto volumes (10 3/8 x 8 1/4 inches; 264 x 209 mm). xxxii, 868; vi, 770; [vi], 604, [152, index] pp. Volume I lacking leaf A, probably a blank. This first English edition is more rare than the original first edition of 1761.
Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked. Spines elaborately stamped in gilt and each spine with two red morocco labels, lettered in gilt. Top edges dyed brown. Some scuffing and scraping to boards. Corners a bit bumped. A mild dampstain to the bottom margin of signature 4T in volume I. Leaf 3Y4 in volume I with the lower, outer corner torn, but not affecting text. A bit of scattered foxing, but mostly very clean internally. Overall, a very clean copy of this classic work.
"Morgnani was the first to make a complete and systematic correlation between the symptoms of a particular disease and the anatomical lesions found on post-mortem examination" (Norman).
"By this great work, one of the most important in the history of medicine, Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy. The work was completed in Morgagni's 79th year and consists of a series of 70 letters reporting about 700 cases and necropsies. As best he could he correlated the clinical record with the post-mortem finding. Morgagni gave the first descriptions of several pathological conditions... as Vrichow said he introduced the 'anatomical idea' into medical practice. Morgagni gave the first description of cerebral gummata and diseases of the cardiac valves; early accounts of syphilitic aneurysm. acute yellow atrophy of the liver and tuberculosis of the kidney, and the first recorded case of heart block; he emphasized the extreme importance of visceral syphilis and described what is known as the Morgagni cataract. He proved, in many autopsies, the Valsalva dictum that the cerebral lesion in apoplexy is on the opposite side from the resulting paralysis. The Sedibus abolished humoral concepts in pathology for a long period of time" (G-M, p. 353-4).
The translator, Alexander Benjamin, was an Irishman who studied at Leyden and London and later worked at the London Hospital. He died at the early age of thirty-three and is still remembered for his translation of Morgagni's great work, which was published the year after his death.
Morgagni’s De sedibus, et causis morborum, “published when he was seventy-nine years of age, had been years in preparation, and constitutes a foundation of modern pathological anatomy. Vast in scope, it is one of the most fundamentally important works in the history of medicine. In it he reports in precise and exhaustive detail his findings in nearly seven hundred autopsy dissections, introducing and insisting on the concept that diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease must be based on an exact understanding of the pathologic changes in the anatomic structures. It put the final rout to the old humoral pathology. Morgagni’s contribution to the understanding of disease may well rank with the contributions of Vesalius in anatomy and Harvey in physiology” (Heirs of Hippocrates).
Norman Library 1548. Norman Library. Osler 1180. [For first edition of 1761]: Garrison and Morton 2276. Heirs of Hippocrates 501. Printing and the Mind of Man 206. Waller 6672. Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books, p. 125.
HBS 69257.
$5,000. (Inventory #: 69257)
(310) 659-3674
