William Harvey - Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium - 1662

Full leather binding with a thick, glossed spine. 3 holes with two still-present cords. Manuscript title inscribed on the back cover, the lower part somewhat rubbed. A worn-copy specimen.

[14] front flyleaf, 388, [2], 1 white leaf

It is the most important treatise on embryology of the 17th century. A milestone of the famous English physician who, after the 'de motu cordis,' turns his attention to the studies on generation and overturns the Galen-Aristotelian conception of embryo development. Harvey rejects the earlier doctrines on fetal formation and ranks among the most important biology scientists despite the limited use of the microscope just invented. William Harvey (Folkestone, 1 April 1578 – Roehampton, 3 June 1657) was an English physician, the first scientist to accurately describe the human circulatory system and the properties of blood pumped from the heart to the rest of the body. He is considered the father of angiology and cardiology.

Engraved title page full page. Binding a little stained. Ex libris affixed to the first flyleaf. Light foxing and sporadic mottling. A non-structural tear to the last leaf beneath 'Finis.' Complete copy, still clean and usable."