Valverde - La anatomia del corpo umano - 1586

Juan Valverde de Hamusco
The Anatomy of the Human Body
Venice - 1586 - Stamperia de’ Giunti
(18), 154, (4) c. ill. folio - 29.5 x 20.5 cm.

EXTREMELY ESTEEMED, IMPORTANT AND RARE VENETIAN GIUNTINE EDITION OF VALVERDE’S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, ONE OF THE GREATEST ANATOMISTS OF THE 16TH CENTURY.
The first edition to contain four new plates out of text, relating to the muscle bundles of the human body.
ADAMS V, 231
WELLCOME 6477
WALLER I, 9806
CAMERINI 911
CHOULANT 205-208

“…he corrected Vesalian anatomy. His eye-muscle figures are a great improvement of those of Vesalius, as is the representation of the muscles of nose and larynx”
CUSHING-FULTON 146-147

Valverde took 27 of his plates directly from the 1543 and 1555 Vesalian editions from Vesalio’s workshop, while the remaining 19 plates were attributed to him.
The famous Spanish anatomist justified his copy of Vesalio’s plates as the clearest way to demonstrate the differences between the two anatomists.
Valverde made over sixty corrections and additions to Vesalio’s work.
In particular correcting Vesalius and Galen’s erroneous conception of the movement of blood through the septum.

Contains a splendid etched title page in an elaborate architectural frame bearing classical busts, monkeys, boars, monstrous figures and scenes of anatomy lessons.

With 46 wonderful copper-engraved anatomical plates on full page, most of which follow Vesalius but enlarged and with some improvements, of which 42 are included in the regular pagination and for the FIRST TIME 4 plates added out of text, usually interleaved between pages 82/83 in most copies recorded but, as VERY RARELY happens, placed in this copy at the end of the text, with the splendid presentation page on page OO1 (see photo).

The original illustrations were most likely drawn by Gaspar Becerra (1520/1570), while the copper plate engravings are thought to have been cut by Nicolas Beatrizet (1507/1570?), whose initials NB appear on some plates.
Accompanying the full-page portrait of Valverde, etched by Beatrizet, on the reverse of the dedication to King Philip II (as in the original Spanish edition published in Rome in 1556).
Another dedication to Cardinal Fra Giovanni da Toledo.

“These illustrations became the standard for anatomical works for over a century.”
c.f.r. MORTIMER, Italian 16th pag. 709/11

Beautiful twentieth-century binding in sturdy half morocco with corners.
Rigid boards.
Elegant manuscript-like author’s name, title and printing date on the spine.
Excellent conservation.

Good preservation also of the interior.
Moisture traces on the frontispiece and on the last plate, though not obtrusive, while the remaining 45 plates and the portrait appear very well preserved.
Small restorations to the outer corners of the frontispiece, and marginal on the last plate.
Occasional small damp stains and slight browning, but most papers remain fresh and clean.
Ancient handwritten ex libris on the frontispiece, including, probably contemporary, “Gio. Buffa Peretti chirurgo”.
Modern endpapers.

A fine and rare complete copy.
BOUND. COMPLETE