Romae, Sumptibus Laurentii, & Thomae Pagliarini Bibliopol. sub signo Palladis - Ex Typographia Rochi Bernabô, 1728, in-folio (36,4 x 24,3 cm or 14.33 x 9.57 inches), xxviii - 79 pp. - 5 ff. (index), modern full parchment, title lettering on spine with black ink.
Second edition (first in 1714) of one of the most celebrated rarities in the history of medecine and dentistery for important early studies of the kidney, the venous system, the ear and the teeth. Only the two Rome editions were printed from the original copper plates engraved in 1552. Eustachius intended to publish a general treatise on anatomy, which would have rivaled Vesalius's Fabrica as a founding work of the modern anatomy. Eustachius (San Severino 1520 - 1574) is considered to have been the most scientific anatomist of the hight Renaissance. Althougt the plates that illustrated his distinctly original observations were engraved by 1552, they remained unprinted for 160 years. Early in the eighteenth century, they were found in the Vatican Library and presented by Pope Clement XI to his physician, Giovanni Maria Lancisi, who in 1714 published the forty-seven plates with his own notes. Eustachius' drawings were the first anatomic plates to be engraved on copper. This medium of copperplate engraving selected by Eustachi had several advantages over woodcuts used by Vesalius. Chief among these was that copperplate could be engraved in finer detail than woodcut, thus allowing for greater precision of anatomical detail, and far greatly subtlety of design. Also, Eustachius introduced the innovation of added a grid to the borders of his engravings, enabling the reader to locate the precise position of each anatomical part within a particular engraving by use of coordinates. Enriched by a frontispiece after Ricciolini engraved by C. Gregori, a title device with Eustachus dissecting a body before an auditory after Petrus Leo Ghezzius, engraved ornemental letters and 47 anatomical plates on full pages. Some broning, foxings or minor waterstains in the margins. Some contemporary handwritten letters placed in the plates to key to the captions. Cfr. Wellcome II p. 536 ; Chouland-Frank, Anatomical Illustration p. 202 ; Garrison and Morton 391 ; Blake 139 ; Norman 740 ; The Haskell F. Norman Library, Part I, 086 (first edition).