DIONIS Pierre L’Anatomie de l’homme suivant la circulation du sang, & les dernières découvertes. Quatrième édition.

Blake, p. 121; Wellcome, II, p. 471; Guigard, I, p. 38 ; see Osler, 2468 (first editino 1690) and Heirs of Hippocrates, 649.

Fourth, enlarged edition.

Pierre Dionis (1643-1718) was the first to present anatomical dissections at the Jardin Royal.

« A native of Paris, Dionis studied surgery at the Confraternity of St; Côme and was first surgeon to Queen maria Theresa until her death in 1684. When Louis XIV established a demonstratorship in operative surgery at the Jardin Royal ion the early 1670’s, he appointed Dionis to the position. Dionis remained there until 1680 when he returned to serve as surgeon to the entire royal house. The present work [Latin edition, Paris 1696] was first published in French in 1690 and soon became a standard work and popular textbook on the subject. It remained in print for over half a century and was even translated into Chinese” (Heirs).

The work is divided into 10 large chapters in which the author gives details of his anatomical demonstrations given in the King’s garden.

Compared with the first edition illustrated with 19 plates, this edition has a new plate (p. 308) showing the male and female genitalia, as well as a new chapter devoted to the ‘description of an extraordinarily dilated ear of the heart’. This chapter is illustrated with a beautiful fold-out plate showing the affected organ.

All the plates were engraved by the famous master engraver Simon Thomassin (1654-1733).

Royal provenance

A superb copy with the arms of Philippe II de France, Duc d’Orléans (1674-1723), nephew of Louis XIV and future regent.

Some occasional foxing.