Morgagni, Giovanni Battista | De Sedibus et Causis Morborum

Morgagni, Giovanni Battista

De sedibus, et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque. Venice: typographia Remondiniana, 1761

2 volumes, folio (390 x 245 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by J. Renard, first title printed in red and black, both title-pages with engraved allegorical vignette, engraved initials, vignettes, and headpieces; first volume with scarce half-title and final blank Oo6; portrait loosely inserted, some foxing, light dampstain in fore-edges of last few quires in each volume. Original flexible boards, manuscript titles on spines; soiled, backstrips torn with loss.

First edition of the foundation of modern pathological anatomy, "one of the great books in the history of medicine" (Lilly).

Morgagni (1682-1771), professor at Padua, published the results of his life's work at the age of 79. It consists of five books containing seventy letters, written in an engaging style, recording postmortem findings that are correlated with clinical records on a grand scale. While others, like Vesalius, looked at diseased viscera in the dead body with analytical skill, it is the sheer scope of Morgagni's work and his many descriptions of new diseases, that helped to make pathology a branch of modern medicine. He described conditions that were not recognized until decades later, including discussions of cardiac valves, syphilitic aneurysm, pneumonia, and tuberculosis of the kidney.

A crisp copy in original condition.

REFERENCE:

Garrison-Morton 2276; Lilly Library, Notable Medical Books 125; Norman 1547; Grolier, Medicine 46; Heirs of Hippocrates 792; PMM 206

PROVENANCE:

L.G. (small circular library stamp on first title) — Huntington Williams (bookplate; gift inscription dated 26 June 1971) — McKim Williams