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Jean-Marc Bourgery and Claude Bernard and N.-H. Jacob), Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'homme: comprenant l'anatomie chirurgicale et la médecine opératoire ... edition avec des planches et textes supplementaire. This is the third volume of the eight volume series. The Traité complet de l’anatomie de l’homme comprises eight enormous volumes with 2108 pages of text containing 726 plates (and a lovely frontispiece representing the ‘three ages of man’) with a total of 3750 individual images. The first five volumes are dedicated to descriptive anatomy, two volumes deal with surgical anatomy and theory, and the last volume focuses on the general anatomy and philosophy of anatomy. Bourgery paid great attention to the quality of the illustrations because they were meant to be ‘drawn to nature’. Nicolas Henri Jacob was already established and later honoured as a draftsman; he mastered lithographic techniques and also knew the subject of medical science quite well. He drew and lithographed 512 of 726 plates and 2196 illustrations out of 3750. There have been also other students and artists who collaborated with him, among whom were Charlotte A. Hublier, Jean Baptiste Léveillé, Edmond Pochet, and others. All the plates were made using a lithographic technique invented by Alois Senefelder. The procedure allowed a much more accurate drawing and gave a better haptic impression of the anatomical structures than in woodcut or copper engraving. Recently all the coloured plates from Bourgery and Jacob's work were republished in a magnificent two volume folio edition with an excellent and very thorough historical introduction by Jean-Marie Le Minor and Henri Sick, which provides a great deal of information on this work that was not previously available. The editors point out that although most of the text has become obsolete the anatomical images are still very useful and informative, and the surgical images are among the best illustrations of nineteenth-century instruments and operations. The commentaries of the new edition are in French, German, and English: Bourgery and Jacob, Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery (2005). The work was praised lavishly during its appearance. When the first volume was printed, it was described as having ‘superb and truthful detail’ and as being ‘a masterpiece of precision’ (Revue médicale, française et étrangère, 3, 1831, 353); and when volume 8 appeared the Société des beaux-arts de Paris described it as ‘utterly magnificent’ (Annales de la Société libre des beaux-arts, 4, 1854, 15). In their sale catalogue Bonhams in 2019 described this work as ‘without a doubt the most spectacular anatomical atlas ever produced.’ Here offered is the largest and most comprehensive of the eight volumes, with over 110 plates. Tome III: Anatomie descriptive physiologique. La névrologie ou les organes de l'innervation. Paris: Delaunay, 1844. 4 pages and 341 pages, and 114 coloured plates (seven folding), numbered 1 to 100. Includes plates 34 bis, 36 bis, 36 ter - 37 bis, 38 bis, 43 bis, 48 bis, 57 bis; 79 bis, 81 bis, 85 bis, 88 bis, 89 bis and 89 ter. (with their explanatory leaves). This is one of the most attractive volumes in the set and is presented in its original three-quarters red sheepskin and marbled boards. The binding is generally strong and firm, with some minor wear (and one corner with the leather loose and the start of a crack at the lower front joint) but presenting very well. The interior is remarkably clean and fresh -- remarkably, because this set is known for staining and browning easily. This is a very heavy volume indeed and is almost always found in cracked bindings: here the binding remains structurally solid. The red leather is scuffed but the binding is solid. The 341 pages of text have wide margins and are very good and the plates and visually very attractive, bright and clean. (A very few pages have light and faint scattered marks, not visually pronounced). All in all, a lovely large (and very heavy) volume devoted to the central, nervous and vegetative nervous system and the sensory organs. The plates are shiningly attractive, the best in the set, and are often extracted to make decorative images in frames. The plates are here printed on card paper. The presence of folding plates -- up to 90 cms in length -- adds greatly to the volume. A really stunning volume! Please be aware of postage costs for a large and very heavy volume.
Estimate:£762.97
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Estimate:
£762.97

OCT 8 | 3:00 PM

OCT 8 | 3:00 PM

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BOK, "Illustrierte bestimmungstabellen der käfer Deutschland"Paul
10/06/2026

£22.7
Est: £30.25
OCT 17 | 10:00 PM