The earliest work of importance in comparative morphology. Tyson compared the anatomy of man and monkeys and between the two he placed the chimpanzee, which he regarded as the typical pygmy. This was the origin of the idea of a “missing link” in the ascent of man from the apes. Facsimile reprint with introduction, 1966. Biography of Tyson by Ashley Montagu, Philadelphia, 1943.

Réaumur showed that crustaceans replace their lost limbs, a fact until then disputed.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

“First extensive work on the comparative anatomy of vertebrates” (Casey Wood).

Réaumur’s greatest work describes the appearance, habits and locality of all the known insects except the beetles, and includes 267 plates. Posthumously published: Tome VII: Histoire des fourmis, (Paris: Paul Lechevalier éditeur, 1928), and Histoire des scarabées (Paris: Paul Le Chevalier éditeur,1955) with 21 plates.

The first portion of Reaumur's encyclopedic work that was translated into English appears to have been his studies of bees. This was translated by Gilles Auguste Bazin and as published as The natural history of bees:  Containing an account of their production, their oeconomy, the manner of their making wax and honey, and the best methods for the improvement and preservation of them (London: J and P. Knapton, 1744). Digital facsimile of the 1744 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Digital editions of all six volumes of the original edition of the Mémoires are available from the Internet Archive at these links.

Lyonet’s monograph on the goat moth caterpillar remains a famous example of anatomical examination. It is also a thorough treatise on the microscope and lenses that Lyonet used. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Trembley discovered the hydra and was the first to observe in it asexual reproduction, regeneration, and photosensitivity in an animal without eyes. His experiments were of great importance in the study of regeneration of lost parts. He was the first to make permanent grafts and to witness cell-division. A biography of Trembley was published by J. R. Baker, London, 1952. English translation in S.G. and H.M. Lenhoff, Hydra and the birth of experimental biology, Pacific Grove, CA, 1986. Digital facsimile of the 1744 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

This pioneering work on experimental entomology incorporates Bonnet’s most important discovery–parthenogenetic reproduction–based on his study of aphids. Bonnet used the result of this and other discoveries as a basis for speculation about life on earth. This work presents in tabular form his version of the “great chain of being”. Bonnet’s concept of the essential continuity of life, a consequence of his discovery and preformationist interpretation of parthenogenesis, was a major force in the shaping of later evolutionary opinion. See No. 472.

The first original work on equine anatomy after Ruini (No. 285). Stubbs, the great painter of animals, prepared his own dissections of horse carcasses, and personally engraved the 24 double folio plates for this work, a task that took him seven or eight years to complete. Besides the first issue of this work, copies with text leaves identical to the first edition exist with the plates printed on paper watermarked 1798, 1813, and 1815. See No. 6610.54.

Includes John Hunter’s observations on the secondary sexual characteristics in birds, on the descent of the testis, on the air sac in birds, on the structure of the placenta, etc., together with the original description of the olfactory nerves. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

First attempt at a description of Indian serpents and serpent venoms. Includes the original description of Russell’s viper, Daboia russellii. Digital facsimile from the Linda Hall LIbrary at this link.

Cuvier played a leading part in the development of paleontology and stimulated the study of comparative anatomy. He ranks with von Baer as one of the founders of modern morphology. Vols. 1-2 ed. by C. Duméril, and vols. 3-5 ed. by G.L. Duvernoy, but Cuvier took full responsibility for the contents of this work. The posthumous second edition, revised and expanded by Georges Cuvier's younger brother, Georges-Frédéric Cuvier  to 8 vols., appeared from 1835-1846.

Blumenbach, physiologist and anthropologist, was Professor of Medicine at Göttingen. He was the first to show the value of comparative anatomy in the study of anthropology; his classic text went through many editions; it was translated into English in 1807.

Vicq d’Azyr has been called the greatest comparative anatomist of the 18th century. The mammillo-thalamic tract is named the “bundle of Vicq d’Azyr”. See No. 401.2. Digital facsimile of from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Home plagiarized this large work from the manuscripts of John Hunter, his late father-in-law, and, as a result, of immense importance for publication of Hunter’s researches, and for aspects of Hunter's collection on which his "museum" was based. After he corrected the page proofs Home destroyed the original manuscripts by Hunter, on which this work was based. See Qvist, John Hunter (1981). Digital facsimiles from the Hathi Trust at this link.

An elaborate expansion of Lamarck’s one-volume work with the same title published in Paris, 1801 (No.215.5). As a systematist Lamarck made important contributions to biology. He separated spiders and crustaceans from insects, made advances in the classification of worms and echinoderms, and introduced the classification of animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. The introduction to this work includes Lamarck’s summary of his four laws of evolution. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Chamisso was naturalist on the Kotzebue voyage of 1815-1818. This monograph on certain Vermes included the first description of several of the tunicates and the earliest use of the expression “alternation of generations”. Nissen, Zoologische Buchillustration, 862.

Meckel is considered the greatest comparative anatomist before Johannes Müller. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust Digital Library at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Contains 435 hand-colored plates in double elephant folio format, originally issued in 87 parts. The birds of America is widely regarded as the greatest illustrated ornithological work ever published, and one of the greatest works of natural history illustration ever created.

• Imprint dates: v. 1, 1827-30; v. 2, 1831-34; v. 3, 1834-35; v. 4, 1835-38, June 20.
• Plate LXIV drawn from nature by Lucy Audubon.
• Plates I-II, VI-VII engraved by W [illiam] H[ome] Lizars, retouched by R [obert] Havell, junr.; pl VIII-IX engraved by W.H. Lizars; pl. III-V, CI-CV, CVIII, CX engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell, junr.; pl. X-C, CVI-CVII, CIX, CXII-CCCCXXXV engraved, printed and coloured by R. Havell.
• Plates II, VII dated 1829; pl. CVI-CX, CXII-CVX dated 1831; pl. CXXXI-CXL, CXLIII-CLV dated 1832; pl. CLVI-CLXXVII, CLXXIX-CLXXXII, CLXXXIV-CLXXXV dated 1833; pl. CLXXXVI-CXCVII, CXCIX, CCII-CCXXXV dated 1834; pl. CCXXXVI-CCLXXXV, CCLXXXVII, CCLXXXIX-CCXC dated 1835; pl. CCLXXXVI, CCLXXXVIII, CCXCI-CCCL dated 1836; pl. CCCLI-CCCC dated 1837; pl. CCCCI-CCCCXXXV dated 1838.
• Plate CCLX marked "CCXL".

This vast work is divided into seven parts. I: Histoire naturelle générale et particulière…15 vols., by Buffon and L.J.M. Daubenton (1749-67). II: Histoire naturelle des oiseaux. 9 vols., by Buffon, P. Guéneau de Montbeillard and G.L.C.A. Bexon (1770-1783). III: Histoire naturelle des mineraux. 5 vols., by Buffon (1783-88). IV: Supplement. 7 vols., by Buffon, the last volume finished by La Cépède after Buffon’s death (1774-1789). V: Histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes ovipare et des serpents. 2 vols., by Le Compte de la Cépède (1788-89). VI: Histoire naturelle des poissons. 5 vols., by La Cépède (1798- “An XI” [1802/03]). Histoire naturelle des cétacées. 1 vol., by La Cépède. (An XII [1803/04]).

“Natural history, prior to Buffon, had all the earmarks of an avocation, a hobby. Buffon is the one who raised it to the status of a science” (Mayr). Buffon is also regarded as an important early contributor to the history of evolutionary thought as he introduced a large number of evolutionary problems, such as common descent, extinction, and reproductive isolation of species, into the realm of scientific investigation.

 I. Organs of motion and digestion. 1833.--II. Absorbent, circulating, respiratory, and urinary systems. 1834.--III. pt. I. Nervous system and organs of sense. pt. II. Connective and tegumentary systems and peculiarities. 1836.--IV. Organs of generation. 1838.--V. Products of generation. 1840. 

When John Hunter died his museum was cared for by his faithful assistant and amanuensis, the artist and anatomist, William Clift, who persuaded the Government to purchase it. Richard Owen later became curator and his monumental catalogue is still of value today. A history of the museum from its foundation to its partial destruction by a high-explosive bomb in May 1941, is given in G. Grey Turner’s Hunterian Museum, 1946.

The greatest American book on herpetology, and one of the finest American color plate books on natural history. The fourth volume is particularly rare. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.  In 1842 Holbrook issued an expanded second edition in 5 vols.

Second edition in five vols., 1829–1830. After Cuvier's death 12 "disciples" of Cuvier brought out a third edition in 22 vols. from 1836 to 1849. The 12 "disciples" were Jean Victor Audouin (insects), Gerard Paul Deshayes (molluscs), Alcide d'Orbigny (birds), Antoine Louis Dugès (arachnids), Georges Louis Duvernoy (reptiles), Charles Léopold Laurillard (mammals in part), Henri Milne Edwards (crustaceans, annelids, zoophytes, and mammals in part), Francois Desire Roulin (mammals in part),Achille Valenciennes (fishes), Louis Michel Français Doyère (insects), Charles Émile Blanchard (insects, zoophytes) and Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau (annelids, arachnids etc.). The work was illustrated with tables and plates (at the end of Volume IV) covering only some of the species mentioned. A much larger set of illustrations was published by the entomologist Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in his Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier (9 vols, 1829-1844).  Its 448 quarto plates by Alfred Joseph Annedouche, Canu, Eugène Giraud, Lagesse, Lebrun, Vittore Pedretti, Plée and Smith illustrated 6200 animals. Cowan. "On the Disciples' Edition of Cuvier's Regne Animal", J. Soc. Bibliog. Nat. Hist. 8 (1) (1976) 32–64. Several English translations were published, the first of which was probably that of John Edward Gray (1824). See Coleman, Georges Cuvier zoologist, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1964. Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

Owen’s first large-scale original work covered the whole range of the toothed vertebrates, living and fossil, and discussed in detail the micrsocopic structure of the teeth and the physiology of dentition. Includes 168 plates. His comprehensive investigation of the morphology of mammalian teeth led him into palaeontology, of which he soon became one of the masters. Owen, son-in-law of William Clift, was from 1836-56 Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. During the 1860s he was one of the most virulent opponents of Darwinism. Some copies of this work were issued on large paper.

First description of the gorilla. Savage, an American physician/clergyman, worked extensively as a missionary physician in Africa. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Owen’s vertebral theory of the origin of the skull, later refuted by Thomas Huxley and others.
"Owen began working systematically on problems of transcendental morphology in 1841, as part of his curatorial task to arrange the osteological collection of the Hunterian Museum. The osteological work was not published until 1853, but in the intervening years various spin-offs of this basic museum work appeared in print. . . . Owen extracted from the catalogue work his comprehensive account of transcendental osteology which he presented to the British Association in the form of a major report (1846); it was enormously detailed, densely packed with specifics, loaded with technical terms, and tedious to read. This report, with some additions, was published in book form under the title On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton (1848). The following year, 1849, Owen expanded upon some parts of his BAAS Report in a lecture at the Royal Institution, published as On the Nature of Limbs. It was less overloaded with anatomical detail and nomenclature than his report, and more accessible to a wider audience" (Rupke, Richard Owen Victorian Naturalist, pp. 163-64)

Vol. 2 was published in 1846; Vol. 1 in 1848. Digital facsimiles of both vols. from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Siebold was the author of  Vol. 1, on invertebrates; he introduced the taxa Arthropoda and Rhizopoda, and defined the taxon Protozoa specifically for single-celled organisms. Vol. 1 was translated into English and edited with notes and additions by Waldo I. Burnet as Comparative anatomy (London: Trubner & Co.; Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1854). Digital facsimile of the English translation from Google Books at this link.

Vols. 1-4 by Louis Agassiz were published from 1857-1862; Vol. 5, North American starfishes by Alexander Agassiz, appeared in 1877. Louis Agassiz was, for his time, the leading comparative anatomist in America and a virulent opponent of Darwinism. Ten volumes of this set were planned but only 5 appeared. Volume one contains Louis Agassiz's theoretical work, Essay on Classification. The remainder of the set is valuable for its descriptions of American turtles. Digital facsimiles of the 5 vols. from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

This great systematic work, begun by Bronn, was continued by other naturalists. It deals with both recent and fossil zoology. Bronn wrote the volumes dealing with Amorphozoa, Actinozoa, and Malacozoa, published 1859-1862.  Digital facsimile  of some of the volumes from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. The Wikipedia article on Bronn listed the following volumes published in the series, as of 02-2017:

"Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs (alternative title Dr. H.G. Bronn's Klassen und Ordnugen des Thier-Reichs: wissenschaftlich dargestellt in Wort und Bild). C.F. Winter, Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1859. Some volumes were not published. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.2054.

• First editions:
  • Band 1: Amorphozoa, von H.G. Bronn, 1859, [1].
  • Band 2: Actinozoa, von H.G. Bronn, 1860, [2].
  • Band 3, Malacozoa, Abt. 1: Malacozoa acephala, von H.G. Bronn, 1862, [3].
  • Band 3, Malacozoa, Abt. 2: Malacozoa cephalophora, von W. Keferstein, 1862-1866, [4].
  • Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Halfte 1: Entomostraca. Von A. Gerstaecker, 1866-1879, [5].
  • Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Halfte 2: Malacostraca. Von A. Gerstaecker, und A. E. Ortmann. Princeton, 1901, [6], plates [7].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 1: Sarkodina und Sporozoa, von O. Bütschli, 1880–82, [8].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 2: Mastigophora, von O. Bütschli, 1883–87, [9], plates [10].
• Band 1, Protozoa, Abt. 3: Infusoria und System der Radiolaria, von O. Bütschli, 1887–89, [11], plates [12].
• Band 2, Abt. 1: Spongien (Porifera), von Dr. G.C.J. Vosmaer, 1887, [13].
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 1, Abs. 1: Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Cölenteraten, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl Chun, 1889-1892, [14].
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 1, Abs. 2: Specieller Theil, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl Chun, 1894-1916.
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 2: Scyphomedusae, bearbeitet von M. E. Thiel, 1936-1962.
• Band 2, Abt. 2, Coelenterata, Buch 3: Anthozoa, bearbeitet von Dr. O. Carlgren, 1903 + atlas, [15].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 1: Die Seewalzen, von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, 1889-1892, [16].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 2: Die Seesterne, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1899, [17].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 3: Die Schlangensterne, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1901.
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 4: Die Seeigel, begonnen von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. Otto Hamann, 1904, [18].
• Band 2, Abt. 3, Echinodermen (Stachelhäuter), Buch 5: Die Seelilien, von Dr. Hubert Ludwig, 1889-1907, [19].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 1: Amphineura und Scaphopoda, von Dr. H. Simroth, 1892-1895, [20].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 2, Buch 1: Gastropoda prosobranchia, von Dr. H. Simroth, 1896-1907 + atlas, [21].
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 2, Buch 2: Pulmonata, von Dr. H. Simroth, fortgeführt von Dr. H. Hoffmann, 1896-1907 + atlas.
• Band 3, Mollusca, Abt. 3: Bivalvia, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. F. Haas, 1935-1955.
• Band 3, Supplement 1, Tunicata (Manteltiere), Abt. 1: Die Appendicularien und Ascidien, begonnen von Dr. Osw. Seeliger, fortgesetzt von Dr. R. Hartmeyer, 1893-1911, [22], [23], [24].
• Band 3, Supplement 1, Tunicata (Manteltiere), Abt. 2: Pyrosomen, begonnen von Dr. Osw. Seeliger, fortgesetzt von Dr. G. Neumann, 1910-1913, [25].
• Band 3, Supplement 2, Tunikaten (Manteltiere), Abt. 2, Buch 2, Lief. 1: Doliolidae, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Günther Neumann.
• Band 3, Supplement 2, Tunikaten (Manteltiere), Abt. 2, Buch 2, Lief. 2-3: Salpidae, bearbeitet von J. E. W. Ihle, 1935-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1a: Mionelminthes, Trichoplax und Trematodes, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. H. Pagenstecher und Prof. Dr. M. Braun, 1879-1893, [26].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1b: Cestodes, fortgesetzt von Prof. Dr. M. Braun, 1894-1900 + atlas, [27].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 1: Acoela und Rhabdocoelida, bearbeitet von Dr. L. von Graff, mit Beiträgen von Prof. Dr. L. Böhmig und Prof. Dr. Fr. von Wagner, 1904-1908 + atlas, [28].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 2: Tricladida, bearbeitet von Dr. L. von Graff, mit Beiträgen von Prof. Dr. P. Steinmann, Prof. Dr. L. Böhmig und Dr. A. Meixner, 1912-1917 + atlas, [29].
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 1c, Turbellaria, Abt. 3: Polycladida, bearbeitet von R. Stummer-Traunfels, 1933.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Trochelminthes, Buch 1, Teil 1: Rotatorien, Gastrotrichen und Kinorhynchen, bearbeitet von A. Remane, 1929-1933.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 1, Teil 2: Gastrotricha und Kinorhyncha, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. A. Remane, 1935-1936.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 3: Nematodes und Nematomorpha, bearbeitet von L. A. Jägerskiöld und J. H. Schuurmans Stekhoven Jr, 1913-1959.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 2, Aschelminthen, Buch 4: Kamptozoa, bearbeitet von Dr. Carl I. Cori, 1936.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 2: Polychaeta, bearbeitet von F. Hempelmann, 1937.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 3: Oligochaeta, bearbeitet von H. A. Stolte, 1935-1969.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 3, Annelides, Buch 4: Hirudineen, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. K. Herter, Dr. W. Schleip und Dr. H. Autrum, 1936-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 1, Phoronidea, Ektoprokta und Brachiopoda, Teil 1: Phronidea, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Carl I. Cori, 1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 2, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Teil 1: Chaetognatha, bearbeitet von Dr. W. Kuhl, 1938.
• Band 4, Vermes, Abt. 4, Tentaculaten, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Buch 2, Chaetognathen und Hemichordaten, Teil 2: Hemichordata, bearbeitet von Dr. C. J. van der Horst. 1934-1939.
• Band 4, Vermes, Supplement: Nemertini (Schnurwürmer), bearbeitet von Dr. O. Bürger, 1897-1907, [30].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 1: Allgemeines.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 2, Teil 1: Phiillopoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 2, Teil 2: Ostracoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 3, Teil 3: Cirripedia, bearbeitet von Paul Krüger, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 3, Teil 4: Ascothoracida, bearbeitet von Paul Krüger, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 4: Thermosbaenacea, bearbeitet von Th. Monod, 1940
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 4, Teil 2: Syncarida, bearbeitet von R. Siewing, 1959
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 5: Isopoda.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 6, Teil 2: Stomatopoda, bearbeitet von Heinrich Balss. 1938
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 1, Crustacea, Buch 7: Decapoda, bearbeitet von Heinrich Balss und W. v. Buddenbrock, 1940-1957.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 1: Klasse Chilopoda, von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1902-1925.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 2: Klasse Diplopoda, Teil 1-2, bearbeitet von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1926-1932.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 2, Myriapoda, Buch 3, Symphyla und Pauropoda, bearbeitet von Dr. K. W. Verhoeff, 1933-1934.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 6: Embioidea und Orthopteroidea, bearbeitet von Dr. Max Beier, 1955-1959.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 8, Teil b.ε: Coccina, [31]; Teil b.γ: Psyllina, [32], bearbeitet von Dozent Dr. Otto Pflugfelder, 1939-1941.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 12, Teil a: Neuroptera, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Hermann Friedrich, 1953.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 3, Insecta, Buch 13, Teil f: Aphaniptera, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Julius Wagner, 1939, [33].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 1: Pentastomida, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. R. Heymons, 1935.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 2: Pantopoda, bearbeitet von H. Helfer und E. Schlottke, 1935.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 3: Tardigrada, bearbeitet von Ernst Marcus, 1929.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 4: Solifuga, Palpigrada, bearbeitet von C. Fr. Roewer, 1933-1934, [34].
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 6, Teil 1: Chelonethi oder Pseudoskorpione, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. C. Fr. Roewer, 1940.
• Band 5, Arthropoden, Abt. 4, Arachnoidea, Buch 8: Scorpiones, Pedipalpi, bearbeitet von Franz Werner, 1934-1935.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 1: Einleitendes, Leptocardii und Cyclostomi, bearbeitet von Dr. E. Lönnberg, G. Favaro, B. Mozejko und M. Rauther, 1924.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 1: Anatomie, Physiologie und Entwicklungsgeschichte, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. M. Rauther und M. Leiner, 1927-1940.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 2: Anatomie, bearbeitet von Z. Grodzinski und H. Hoyer und M.Rauther, 1938-1954.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 1: Pisces (Fische), Buch 2, Echte Fische, Teil 3: Ökologie, Systematik, Geographische Verbreitung und Stammesgeschichte. Bearbeitet von G. Duncker und E. Mohr, Hamburg. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 2: Wirbelthiere (Amphibien), fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1873-1878, [35].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 1: Schildkröten, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [36].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 2: Eidechsen und Wasserechsen, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [37], [38].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 3, Reptilien, Teil 3: Schlangen und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Reptilien, fortgesetzt von C. K. Hoffmann, 1890, [39], [40].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 4, Vögel (Aves), Teil 1: Anatomischer Teil. Von H. Gadow (Cambridge) und E. Selenka (Erlangen), 1891, [41].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 4, Vögel (Aves), Teil 2: Systematischer Theil, von Hans Gadow, 1893, [42].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 1 (oder Band 1): Osteologie, Muskulatur, Integument, Verdauungsorgane, Atmungsorgane, Schilddrüse, Thymus, Winterschlaf drüse, bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. C. G. Giebel und Prof. Dr. W. Leche, 1874-1900 + atlas, [43].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 1: Das Gefässystem, bearbeitet von Dr. W. Leche, fortgsetzt von Dr. E. Göppert, 1902-1906.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 2: Das Herz. Bearbeitet E. Ackernecht, Leipzig.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 3: Die Arterien.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 4: Die Venen. Bearbeitet H. Grau, Keredj.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 5, Lieferung 1-4: Urogenitalsystem, herausgegeben von Dr. E. Göppert. Erste Unterabteilung, bearbeitet von Dr. U. Gerhardt, 1914, [44]. Lieferung 5: begonnen von Prof. Dr. U. Gerhardt, fortgsetzt von Prof. Dr. Ludwig Freund, 1939, [45].
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 2, Gefäß- und Urogenitalsystem, Teil 6: Das Lymphgefäßsystem. Bearbeitet H. Grau, Keredj.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 1: Das Zentralnervensystem, bearbeitet von Dr. phil. et med. Ernst Scharrer, 1936.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 2: Peripheres und autonomes Nervensystem. Bearbeitet H. Chreiber, Frankfurt. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen.
• Band 6, Vertebrata, Abt. 5, Mammalia, Buch 3, Nervensystem und Sinnesorgane, Teil 3: Sinnesorgane. Bearbeitet H. Kahmann. München. Wird 1940 zu erscheinen beginnen."

Couch, a general practitioner at Polperro, Cornwall, became one of the greatest authorities on British fishes. The work, a monument of industry and patience, includes 252 hand-colored plates, also by Couch. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Vol. 1. Fishes and reptiles; Vol. 2. Birds; Vol. 3. Mammals. The most important work on the subject after Cuvier, based entirely on personal observations.

Owen entitled his 40th and concluding chapter "Derivative hypothesis of life and species." Despite the major role he played in the mid-nineteenth century debate over evolution, Owen never wrote a major treatise on the subject, and this 40-page chapter represents his longest and most detailed statement of his position concerning the theory of evolution by natural selection. Contrary to popular belief, Owen was not an anti-evolutionist, but he held that Darwinian natural selection did not satisfactorily explain the process of speciation. Owen instead theorized that new species arose from “an innate tendency to deviate from parental type, operating through periods of adequate duration” (Derivative Hypothesis, p. 22). Owen believed that evolution was a teleological rather than an unguided process, “a movement towards a pre-ordained goal; and mutations were not randomly useful or useless, but a logical embroidering on the [fundamental] archetype” (Rupke, Richard Owen, pp 248-49).

Gegenbaur’s best work. He stressed the value of comparative anatomy as the basis of the study of descent, considering that knowledge of the relations of corresponding parts in different animals was more important even than comparative embryology in this respect.

Huxley was among those who refuted Owen’s theory of the vertebral skull.

Dohrn’s theory of change of function as the origin of evolutionary novelties.

English translation, London, 1886. Digital facsimile of the 1883 edition from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Digital facsimiles from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Classic study of the evolution of the central nervous system in the higher mammals. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

A study of the relationship of Man to the other primates, from the physiological and biochemical standpoint. Zuckerman’s work is considered the first adequate interpretation of simian society. 2nd ed., 1980.

French edition, 1880. Digital facsimile of the German edition from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link; of the French edition from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

A comprehensive summary and bibliography of the literature on vertebrate zoology. The first 170 pages are a narrative divided into 19 chapters, plus an index. The remainder is a "partially annotated catalogue" arranged alphatically by author. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

An index to the world's literature on parasites and parasitisms of man, of domestic animals, and of wild animals whose parasites may be transmitted to man and domestic animals. It also contains references to fur-bearing animals, wild life, and to free-living and plant parasitic nematodes or roundworms, which impact food or forage crops. The index eventually extended to about 100 volumes, and around 20,000 pages, in about 30 languages.

The Texas A&M University Medical Sciences Library and the Oklahoma State University Libraries partnered to digitize the Index-Catalogue of Medical and Veterinary Zoology (ICVMZ), and made it available online at this link.

Reprinted, Dover Publications, 1978.

Revised English translation by H. and C. Epstein, ed. by G. Cottrell, as Ornithology from Aristotle to the present, with a foreword and an epilogue on American ornithology by Ernst Mayr. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1975.

The most comprehensive history and historical bibliography of zoological illustration.

First separate printed edition in Latin, translated by Johann Guinter von Andernach, of Galen's dissection manual, in which Galen both described his dissection techniques and described anatomical details that were previously unknown. Guinter was able to translate the first eight and one-half books, which survived in Greek, of Galen's original text which was written in 15 books. For the remaining portions of this work, which survived in Arabic, and were unknown in the 16th century, see Simon's edition, No. 360. Some authorities date Colines's edition as 1532. Guinter's translation also appeared in Basel from the press of Andreas Cratander in 1531 with Guinter's translations of 3 other works by Galen as Claudii Galeni Pergameni De anatomicis administrationibus libri novem ; De constitutione artis medicae liber ; De Theriaca, ad Pisonem commentariolus ; De pulsibus, ad medicinae candidatos liber. Digital facsimile of the Cratander edition from Google Books at this link.

Galen’s anatomical writings are a repository of all contemporary knowledge, together with some of his own views and discoveries. He had a good knowledge of osteology and myology, some knowledge of angiology and less of zoology. Although not to be regarded as the founder of the science of anatomy, he is nevertheless its first important witness. English translation: On anatomical procedures. De anatomicis administrationibus. Translation of the surviving books with introduction and notes by Charles Singer (1956). See also De anatomicis administrationibus, libri i-ix. In Galen's Opera omnia ed. cur. C. G. KÜHN, 2 (1821) 215-731.

First printed edition of the final six and one-half books (the second half of book 9, and books 10-15) of Galen's De anatomicis administrationibus, which were lost in the Greek original. In 1714 the Bodleian Library acquired a 9th century Arabic version of the complete work in 15 books, and in 1860 the British Museum received another. From these manuscripts Max Simon published an Arabic text (vol. 1) with German translation (vol. 2). English translation of Simon’s German text: Galen on anatomical procedures. The later books. A translation by the late W.L.H. Duckworth. Edited [and compared with the Arabic] by M. C. Lyons and B. Travers, Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1962. Digital facsimile of Simon's 1906 edition from the Hathi Trust at this link.

First dated printed edition of the first medieval book devoted solely to anatomy, written by Mondino for his students in 1316. An earlier, but undated edition, of which only 3 copies are recorded, appeared in Padua about 1475 (ISTC no. im00871200). Mondino re-introduced human dissection, which had been neglected for 1500 years before him. He was the most noted dissector of his period, and he set forth the medieval anatomical vocabulary, deriving it mainly from Arabic. Singer, in his translation of the work,The Fasciculo di medicina, Venice 1493; with an introduction etc. by Charles Singer, . . . [including a] translation of the "Anathomia" of Mondino da Luzzi (1925), added an ample glossary of terms of Arabic origin. Facsimile reproduction in E. Wickersheimer’s Anatomies de Mondino dei Luzzi et de Guido de Vigevano, Paris, 1926. ISTC no. im00871500. Digital facsimile from Universität Tübingen at this link.

Mondeville was the first teacher known to have lectured with the aid of illustrations, using 13 charts of human anatomy. He lectured at Montpellier. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

A collection of short medical treatises which circulated widely in manuscript, some as early as the 13th century, and was perhaps attributed by the printers to its former owner, Johannes von Kirchheim, a professor of medicine in Vienna about 1460. His name was probably corrupted by the printers to Ketham. The book includes the first printed anatomic illustrations of any kind. Singer’s edition, which includes his translation of the commentary by Karl Sudhoff, was published at Milan, 1924. The first English translation of Ketham’s text by Luke Demaitre, republishing Singer’s translation of Sudhoff’s commentary, was published at Birmingham by The Classics of Medicine Library, 1988. That edition reproduced the woodcuts in color from an original hand-colored copy at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, together with selected illustrations from the Italian 1493 edition, with Singer’s commentary. ISTC no. ik00013000. Digital facsimile  from Harvard University Libraries at this link.

This Italian translation contains an entirely new and more extensive series of woodcuts and additional text. The dramatically improved and more realistic illustrations, which were reproduced in the numerous later editions, are by an unknown artist, about whom there has been much speculation. He was certainly close to the school of Giovanni Bellini. The dissection scene appears in color only in this edition and is one of the first three known examples of color printing, its four colors having been applied by means of stencils. Facsimile edition with extensive commentary by Charles Singer, 2 vols., Milan, 1925. 

In the woodcuts prepared for the Italian edition we see the first evidence of the transition from medieval to modern anatomical illustration. In the 1491 edition, the woodcut of the female viscera—like those of the Zodiac Man, Bloodletting Man, Wound-Man, etc.—was derived from the traditional non-representational squatting figure found in medieval medical manuscripts. However, the illustrations for the Italian edition "included an entirely redesigned figure showing female anatomy. . . . The scholastic figure from 1491 must have irritated the eyes of the artistic Venetians to such a degree that they immediately abandoned it. After this the female figure actually sits in an armchair, so that the traditional [squatting] position corresponds to a real situation" (Herrlinger, History of Anatomical Illustration, 66).  ISTC no. ik00017000. Digital facsimile from Biblioteca Palatina, Parma (BEIC) at this link.

The work was reprinted with a volume of commentary: Fasiculo de Medicina in Volgare, Venezia, Giovanni e Gregorio De Gregori, 1494. Vol. I: Facsimile dell'esemplare conservato presso la Biblioteca del Centro per la storia dell'Università di Padova. Vol. 2: Tiziana Pesenti, Il "Fasciculus medicinae" ovvero le metamorfosi del libro umanistico. (Treviso: Antilia, 2001).

The last section of this commentary on Aristotle is an illustrated summary of anatomy, the text of which was derived, with some modifications, from medieval manuscripts. The series of eleven woodcuts has been called “the first series of anatomical figures specially prepared for a printed book”.  ISTC No. p00539000.  Digital facsimile from Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel at this link.

Includes the first illustrations of the viscera in a printed book. The four woodcuts are derived with modifications from Peyligk (No. 363.2). This work also contains the first mention ever of the word anthropology (in Latin). Digital facsimile from BIUSanté (Paris) at this link.

“The first systematic and sufficiently detailed examination of the human body since Mundinus, far outstripping the latter in scientific accuracy” (Lind, Pre-Vesalian anatomy, 10, also 141-56). See also Nos. 1589.1 and 1758.1.

Includes folios A & B of his anatomical MSS. Text in French and Italian.

Leonardo, “the greatest artist and scientist of the Italian Renaissance, was the founder of iconographic and physiologic anatomy” (Garrison). He made over 750 sketches of all the principal organs of the body, drawings which were adequately reproduced only in recent times. His notes accompanying the drawings are in mirror-writing. Text in Italian, English, and German.

For more about Leonardo's anatomical work see a short essay I wrote on HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Includes 215 plates.

Splendid edition reproducing all of the drawings in color, and with the original chronology and integrity of the drawings restored. Text provides transliteration of Leonardo’s notes in the original Italian plus English translation, commentary, etc. Combines material previously published less elegantly and accurately in Nos. 364 & 365. For a scientific analysis of Leonardo’s medical writings see K.D. Keele’s Leonardo da Vinci’s elements of the science of man, New York, Academic Press, 1983. For Leonardo’s contributions to neuroanatomy see E.M. Todd, The neuroanatomy of Leonardo da Vinci, Santa Barbara, Capra Press, [1983]. For his work on vision see D.S. Strong, Leonardo on the eye, An English translation and critical commentary on Ms. D. in the Bibliothèque Nationale… New York, Garland, 1979.

For more information on Leonardo's anatomical work see a short essay that I wrote on HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Giacomo Berengario da Carpi (Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, Jacopo Barigazzi, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi or simply Carpus) introduced iconography and independent anatomical observation into the teaching of anatomy. His Commentaria, a thick quarto of over 1000 pages, included 21 full-page woodcut text illustrations plus an architectural title-border, which included an image of a dissection scene. It was the first work since the time of Galen to display any considerable amount of anatomical information based upon personal investigation and observation. The Commentaria contains the first mention of the vermiform appendix, as well as the first good account of the thymus. The description of the male and female reproductive organs, the process of reproduction and the fetus were more extensive than any earlier account, and Berengario was the first to call attention to the greater proportional capacity of the female pelvis to the male pelvis. On fol. ccxxv Berengario gives the first authentic report of vaginal hysterectomy for prolapse. He describes two cases, one performed by himself in 1507 and the other by his father.  

For further details see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

One year after publishing his Commentary on Mondino, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi issued an abbreviated version or Isagoge, with most of the same woodcuts. This was the book by which Berengario's contributions to anatomy and to the teaching of anatomy chiefly becamely known. Berengario intended the Isagoge to be a manual for his students, and as a replacement for his obsolete 1514 edition of Mondino's Anathomia. It has the same arrangement of contents as the Commentaria, and includes some additional anatomical observations, such as the report of a fused kidney with horseshoe configuration seen at a public dissection in 1521, and a description of the valves of the heart.

This translation of Brunschwig’s surgery (No. 5559) includes the first anatomical text printed in English, a 13-page section with 4 woodcuts. Facsimile, Amsterdam, 1973.

The first anatomical text by an Englishman, but only a very brief account of 15 pages. The only known copy of the original edition is in the British Library. Edwardes made the first recorded dissection in England (1531). See David Edwardes introduction to anatomy 1532. A facsimile reproduction with English translation and an Introductory essay on anatomical studies in tudor England by C.D. O'Malley and K.F. Russell (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1961).  See also biographical note by A. Rook and M. Newbold, Med. Hist., 1975, 19, 389.

Includes the first description of the ileo-caecal valve. Laguna, a Spanish anatomist, travelled much in Europe and became physician to Charles V. English translation in No. 461.3. Digital facsimile of the 1535 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first work on the anatomy of the head. Elegantly illustrated with 11 woodcuts. English translation in No. 461.3.

Dryander was among the first to make illustrations after his own dissections. His unfinished guide to dissection entitled Anatomiae, expanded from the Anatomia published the previous year, is one of the most important of the pre-Vesalian anatomies. Choulant ascribes the woodcuts to the school of Hans Brosamer (Frankfurt) while Herrlinger suggests that they may come from the Basel school. This book includes the first printing of two other short works on dissection: Gabriele Zerbi's Anatomia infantis and Copho’s Anatomia porci.

Vesalius’ first anatomical publication, consisting of six oversized anatomical charts, resembling fugitive sheets. The three skeletal woodcuts are signed by the artist, Jan Stephan van Calcar, who also acted as the publisher. This is the only publication by Vesalius in which Calcar is specifically credited with authorship of images in Vesalius's works. The other woodcuts were engraved after drawings by Vesalius. Only two complete sets of the original edition exist–one in the Bibliotheca Nazionale Marciana, Venice, and the other in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library, donated by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, who published a limited edition facsimile of his copy for private distribution (London, 1874). Singer and Rabin, A prelude to modern science, Cambridge, 1946, reproduces the sheets half-size with commentary. A full-size facsimile appears in Vesalius, Tabulae Anatomicae, Munich: Bremer Press, 1934. The woodcuts also appear with commentary in Saunders and O’Malley, The illustrations from the works of Andreas Vesalius, Cleveland: World Publishing, 1950.

A unique manuscript discovery helping us to bridge the gap in the development of Vesalius’s ideas between the Tabulae anatomicae sex (1538) and the Fabrica (1543). Vesalius typically preceded his anatomical demonstrations with Matthaeus' Curtius's commentaries on the Anatomy of Mundinus .

The first book in which each muscle was illustrated separately, with copper-plates of the bones and muscles of the upper limb from drawings by Girolamo da Carpi, which in realism and exactitude surpassed anything between Leonardo and Vesalius. But having seen the woodcuts in Vesalius's Fabrica, the high-minded Ferrarese is said to have deliberately "suppressed his own book, and only 11 copies are now extant” (A. C. Klebs).

This work was reprinted in facsimile in Florence, 1925, edited by Harvey Cushing and Edward Clark Streeter. Digital facsimile of the facsimile edition from the Medical Heritage Library at the Internet Archive at this link. English translation in No. 461.3.

This plagiarism of Vesalius’s Tabulae anatomicae sex contains 25 woodcuts by Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485-1545), and represents the artist’s only contribution to medical illustration. The woodcuts include the best illustrations of brain dissection techniques published before Vesalius’s Fabrica. As with most other sixteenth century medical books, Baldung Grien was not credited on the title page with authorship of the images.

Text in Spanish and Latin. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Published when the author was only 29 years old, the Fabrica revolutionized not only the science of anatomy but how it was taught. Throughout this encylopedic work on the structure and workings of the human body, Vesalius provided a fuller and more detailed description of the human anatomy than any of his predecessors, correcting errors in the traditional anatomical teachings of Galen. Even more epochal than his criticism of Galen and other medieval authorities was Vesalius’s assertion that the dissection of cadavers must be performed by the physician himself.

As revolutionary as the contents of the Fabrica and the anatomical discoveries which it published, was its unprecedented blending of scientific exposition, art and typography. The title page and series of woodcut musclemen remain the most famous anatomical illustrations of all time. The artist or artists responsible for these masterworks has been the source of continuing scholarly speculation for centuries. The latest interpretation follows the traditional view that many of the woodcuts were drawn by Jan van Calcar, and that some of the smaller, less artistic ones were drawn by Vesalius. In The illustrations from the works of Andreas Vesalius (1950) Saunders and O’Malley published reduced versions of all the illustrations from Vesalius’s writings, with a commentary and biographical sketch. The standard biography is C.D. O’Malley, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, Berkeley, 1964. Harvey Cushing’s classic Biobibliography of Andreas Vesalius (1943) appeared in a second edition, Hamden, Conn., 1962. See also the dated but classic work, M. Roth, Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis, Berlin, Reimer, 1892; reprinted Amsterdam,1965. The complete first edition of the Fabrica was first translated into English by William Richardson and John Burd Carman as On the Fabric of the Human Body. A Translation of De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. 5 vols. San Francisco & Novato: Norman Publishing, 1998-2009. In 2014 Karger of Basel published in 2 vols. The Fabric of the Human Body. An Annotated Translation of the 1543 and 1555 Editions with Vesalius' Own Notes for a Never Published Third Edition by D.H. Garrison and M.H. Hast.

For further information on the 1543 edition see HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Shortly after publishing his encyclopedic De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, Vesalius issued De humani corporis fabrica epitome, also from the press of Johannes Oporinus of Basel. This thin set of 14 unnumbered leaves, each containing images and text, and published in large folio format even larger than the Fabrica, was an outline, or précis, or road-map of essential information contained in the Fabrica, including some different and spectacular larger images. This was the first time that the author of a revolutionary medical or scientific work issued a condensation of his essential information roughly simultaneously with the main publication. Vesalius suggested that the large sheets of the Epitome might be mounted on the walls of dissection rooms as a guide to dissection. While the Fabrica was a very expensive encyclopedic work, Vesalius' Epitome, though larger in format, was a much less expensive work that presented essential anatomical information in a concise, comparatively easy to understand manner. It became far more widely published and distributed than the Fabrica. By August 9, 1543 Vesalius published a German translation of the Epitome in Basel, and many plagiarisms and adaptations of the Epitome were published in various European countries, in a wide variety of formats, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Because of its much wider publication and distribution, even more than the Fabrica, Vesalius' Epitome was the publication that revolutionized the teaching and study of human anatomy. English translation by L. R. Lind (1949). Translated into French as Résumé de ses livres sur la fabrique du corps humain....Texte et traduction en français par Jacqueline Vons. Introduction, notes et commentaire par Jacqueline Vons et Stéphane Velut (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2008).

Compendiosa totius anatomie delineatio by Belgian engraver, mathematical and surgical instrument maker, Thomas Geminus (Thomas Lambert or Lambrit) was a slightly abridged version of Vesalius's Epitome illustrated with figures from both the Fabrica and the Epitome re-engraved in copperplate by Geminus. Geminus's work introduced Vesalian anatomy to England, filling an important need by providing a summary view of Vesalius's anatomical discoveries more complete than the Epitome, less bulky and expensive than the Fabrica, and illustrated— via the new medium of copperplate engraving— with a clarity of line impossible even for the highly skilled wood engravers employed by Vesalius. The work was dedicated to Henry VIII, who in 1540 had given assent to an Act uniting Barbers and Surgeons into one Company. In the same year another Act authorized the supply of the cadavers of four executed criminals to the Barber and Surgeons Company for dissection. Geminus undoubtedly intended his book to supply needed information to English surgeons in the spirit of the new legislation. However, Vesalius did not authorize publication of the Compendiosa, and he complained about it bitterly in his China-Root Epistle (1546), so that even though Geminus declared Vesalius's authorship in the headline on leaf A1, the Compendiosa has always been considered the first of the many plagiarisms of Vesalius's anatomical works.

For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Containing Vesalius’s final published revisions of the text, this edition is also superior for its enlarged format, improved typography and printing, better paper, larger woodcut initials, and changes to the lettering of the anatomical woodcuts.

Most of the original woodblocks from the second edition along with the anatomical captions were splendidly reprinted on specially watermarked handmade paper as Icones Anatomicae by the Bremer Press for the New York Academy of Medicine and the University of Munich, 1934. The woodblocks had been preserved in the University of Munich, but were destroyed in World War II.

Vesalius issued an Epitome of the 1555 second edition, of which only two copies have survived.

The first Spanish anatomy book in the Spanish language, the second anatomy book ever published in Spain, and the work that introduced Vesalian illustrations to Spain. The text is a version of Henri de Mondeville’s medieval anatomy. The 12 anatomical woodcuts may have been executed by the printer, Sebastian Martinez.

Historia de la composicion del cuerpo humano Spanish physician Juan Valverde de Amusco was issued in Rome at the press of Antonio Salamanca. This was the first great original medical book in Spanish and the most original of the various "plagiarisms" from Vesalius's Fabrica, although Valverde freely acknowledged that he took his illustrations from Vesalius, providing only four entirely new plates in his series of 42 copperplate engravings copied from the Vesalian woodcuts. Valverde also sometimes corrected Vesalius' images, as in his depictions of the muscles of the eyes, nose, and larynx. 

For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Colombo was a pupil of Vesalius, and succeeded him in the chair of anatomy at Padua before proceeding to chairs first at Pisa and later at Rome. His book, published just after his death, rectified a number of anatomical errors. He described the pulmonary circulation, but may possibly have read the account of Servetus published six years previously. He gave a clear description of the mode of action of the pulmonary, cardiac, and aortic valves. The only illustration in this work is the fine woodcut title page influenced by the title page of Vesalius's Fabrica , and suggesting the relief by Donatello entitled The Heart of the Miser. Colombo met Michelangelo in 1547 and supposedly he attempted to commission Michelangelo to illustrate this book. Unfortunately that project never transpired. English translation of the section on pulmonary circulation in John Banister, The historie of man sucked from the sappe of the most approved anathomistes.… London, John Daye, 1578. English translation of book XV by R.J. Moes and C.D. O’Malley, Realdo Colombo. “On those things rarely found in anatomy”, Bull. Hist. Med., 1960, 34, 508-28. Digital facsimile of the 1559 edition from Google Books at this link.

Observationes anatomicae, a work of 232 leaves printed in the comparatively small octavo format, with no illustrations, was the only work Fallopio published before his death from tuberculosis at age thirty-nine, and is thus the only one that can be said to be fully authentic. The remainder of Falloppio's works were edited for publication from his lecture notes, and may represent more or less than the author's original intention. Observationes was not an all-inclusive textbook of anatomy but rather a detailed critical commentary on Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (1543), in which Falloppio attempted to correct errors in the earlier work, and to add material that Vesalius had overlooked; for this reason, there was no need for illustrations. The large amount of new material included Falloppio's investigations of primary and secondary centers of ossification, the first clear description of primary dentition, numerous contributions to the study of the muscles (especially those of the head), and the famous account of the uterine ("Falloppian") tubes, which he correctly described as resembling small trumpets (tubae), definitely proved the existence of the seminal vesicles. He also gave to the placenta and vagina their present scientific names, provided a superior description of the auditory apparatus (including the first clear accounts of the chorda tympani and semicircular canals), and was the first to clearly distinguish the trochlear nerve of the eye. Vesalius responded positively to Falloppio's work with his posthumously published Examen on Falloppio (1564).

For further details see the entry in HistoryofInformation.com at this link.

Includes historical data. Bauhin was professor of anatomy at Basle.

Guidi, professor of philosophy and medicine at Pisa, discovered the Vidian nerve, the Vidian canal, and the Vidian artery. The above was edited by his nephew.

First publication of the very beautiful copperplates engraved by Francesco Valesio after Odoardo Fialetti, a pupil of Titian. Casseri commissioned these plates covering the whole field of human anatomy for his unfinished masterwork entitled Theatrum anatomicum. For this publication, the editor, Daniel Rindfleisch (Bucretius) added another 20 plates by the same artist/engraver team. See No. 61.2.

The earliest of all independent works on anatomy for graphic or plastic artists. The author, a painter and etcher, drew and engraved all the images himself. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Highmore is remembered for his description of the maxillary sinus, known eponymically as the “antrum of Highmore” (already noticed by Casserius and figured by Leonardo da Vinci), the seminal ducts and the epididymis. This was also the first English work to accept Harvey’s ideas on the circulation. The interesting engraved title page compares the body allegorically to a garden, with the heart as a pump irrigating the garden. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Kerckring made important investigations on the development of the foetal bones. He was the first to describe the large ossicle sometimes present at the lambdoidal suture; his name is remembered in the valvulae conniventes of the small intestine, previously described by Fallopius.

First book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy.

This large folio by Dutch physician, anatomist, poet, and playwright Govert Bidloo contains an engraved title, engraved portrait of Bidloo by Abraham Bloteling after Gérard de Lairesse and 105 engraved plates after Lairesse, probably by Bloteling and Peter and Philip van Gunst. Notably, the work of de Lairesse was featured on the title page.

Lairesse displayed his figures with everyday realism and sensuality, contrasting the raw dissected parts of the body with the full, soft surfaces of undissected flesh surrounding them; placing flayed, bound figures in ordinary nightclothes or bedding; setting objects such as a book, a jar, a crawling fly in the same space as a dissected limb or torso. He thus brought the qualities of Dutch still-life painting into anatomical illustration, and gave a new, darker expression to the significance of dissection. De Lairesse’s images of dissected pregnancies and premature infants also reflect compassion—a quality unusual in art that was intended primarily to be scientific. In 1690 Bidloo's publishers issued an edition in Dutch, and in 1698 William Cowper issued an expanded English with new text using Bidloo's original plates, crediting Bidloo, but without Bidloo's permission, resulting in a famous plagiarism dispute in the era before copyright.

For further details see the entry at HistoryofInformation.com at this link. 

The largest in format, and most elaborate and beautiful of all 17th century English treatises on anatomy, and also one of the most extraordinary plagiarisms in the entire history of medicine. Cowper purchased sets of the van Gunst copperplates used to illustrate Bidloo’s book from Bidloo's publisher apparently without Bidloo's permission, and issued them under his own name with an improved text in English, and a new illustrated appendix. For the frontispiece Cowper had a small printed flap with his own name pasted over Bidloo’s own engraved title and name. All of this was apparently done without Bidloo's permission, so even though Cowper credited Bidloo with the plates, Bidloo accused Cowper of plagiarism and published the record of the case in the following polemic: Gulielmus Cowper, criminis literarii citatus, coram tribunali nobiliss., ampliss: Societatis Britanno-Regiae, Leiden, 1700.

Contains 56 copper-plates, excellent anatomically and artistically, with commentary by Giovanni Maria Lancisi. This is one of the finest of all books on anatomy for artists. English translation with plates re-engraved, London: Senex, [1723].

Havers discovered the Haversian canals and made important observations of the physiology of bone growth and repair. The Haversian lamellae, glands, and folds, are also named after him. The Haversian canals were observed by van Leeuwenhoek in 1686.

This work was widely used for some years after publication, superseding Bartholin in popularity. Second edition, with supplement, 2 vols., Louvain, 1706-12.

Probably the most original artist in the history of anatomical preparations, Ruysch enjoyed making up elaborate three-dimensional emblems of mortality from his specimens. These fantastic, dream-like concoctions constructed of human anatomical parts are illustrated in the Thesaurus on large folding plates mostly engraved by Cornelis Huyberts, who also engraved plates for the painter Girard de Lairesse, illustrator of Bidloo's anatomy. In their dreamlike qualities many of the plates depicting the preparations reflected surrealism centuries before surrealism became fashionable. Ruysch's Thesaurus Anatomicus describe and illustrate the spectacular collections of "Anatomical Treasures" which he produced for display in his home museum between 1701 and 1715 using secret methods of anatomical injection and preservation.

Ruysch's unique anatomical preparations attracted many notables to his museum, including Czar Peter the Great of Russia, who was so fascinated with the preparations that he attended Ruysch's anatomy lectures, and in 1717 he bought Ruysch's entire collection, along with that of the Amsterdam apothecary Albert Seba, for Russia's first public museum, the St. Petersburg Kunstkammer. Over the years most of the dry preparations in St. Petersburg deteriorated or disappeared, but some of those preserved in glass jars remain. A few later specimens by Ruysch, auctioned off by his widow after his death, are also preserved in Leiden. Because most of the preparations did not survive, Ruysch's preparations, and his museum, are known primarily from these publications.

Ruysch's methods allowed him to prepare organs such as the liver and kidneys and keep entire corpses for years. He used a mixture of talc, white wax, and cinnabar for injecting vessels and an embalming fluid of alcohol made from wine or corn with black pepper added. Using his injection methods Ruysch was the first to demonstrate the occurrence of blood vessels in almost all tissues of the human body, thereby destroying the Galenic belief that certain areas of the body had no vascular supply. He was also the first to show that blood vessels display diverse organ-specific patterns. He investigated the valves in the lymphatic system, the bronchial arteries and the vascular plexuses of the heart, and was the first to point out the nourishment of the fetus through the umbilical cord. Ruysch's discoveries led him to claim erroneously that tissues consisted solely of vascular networks, and to deny the existence of glandular tissue.

Although Cheselden is best known for his accomplishments in the field of surgery, he wrote two important books on anatomy. The above was for many years a textbook of the English medical schools and ran through 13 editions.

A romantic history attaches to this fine collection of plates, drawn by Eustachius himself and completed in 1552. They remained unprinted and forgotten in the Vatican Library until discovered in the early 18th century, and were then presented by Pope Clement XI to his physician, Giovanni Maria Lancisi. The latter published them in 1714 together with his own notes. These copperplates are more accurate than the work of Vesalius. Singer was of the opinion had they appeared in 1552 Eustachius would have ranked with Vesalius as one of the founders of modern anatomy. He discovered the Eustachian tube, the thoracic duct, the adrenals and the abducens nerve, and gave the first accurate description of the uterus. He also described the cochlea, the muscles of the throat and the origin of the optic nerves. Plate XVIII is a drawing of the sympathetic nervous system. Eustachius was the first to describe the ganglion chain, but made the mistake of tracing the origin of the cervical portion to the brain-stem. With respect to dentistry, Eustachi's illustrations of the teeth, related to his Libellus de dentibus (1563-64) were first published in this work.

Santorini was one of the ablest dissectors of his day. In the above work many new discoveries of anatomical details are set forth, together with corrections of some of the errors of earlier anatomists. The work describes the four major discoveries for which Santorini is known eponymically: Santorini’s cartilage, Santorini’s vein, Santorini’s duct, and Santorini’s caruncula.

This work made a modest first appearance in 1694 as an octavo, but Cowper worked until his death on a new edition which was finally published posthumously under the supervision and at the expense of Richard Mead (1673-1754). This sumptuous folio with engravings after Rubens and Raphael and an ingenious set of historiated initials, ranks among the most artistic anatomical atlases of the period.

Chovet was born in England and died in Philadelphia. He made many beautiful wax models to illustrate his lectures, and was among the first to popularize the use of wax and natural preparations in the teaching of anatomy, devices which he advocated in his Syllabus. The book gives an interesting picture of the methods employed in the teaching of anatomy in the mid 18th century. Chovet’s famous collection of models went to the University of Pennsylvania, where it later perished in a fire.

The foramen between the greater and lesser sacs of the peritoneum (described on pages 352-65), is named after Winslow. His Exposition is distinguished as being the first book on descriptive anatomy to discard physiological details and hypothetical explanations foreign to the subject. He did much to condense and systematize the anatomical knowledge of his time.

-Sect. VI deals with the nerves. Winslow designated the ganglion chain “the grand sympathetic nerve”, and the smaller branches “the lesser sympathetic”, terms which remain today. The work includes a reprint of the text of Stensen, Discours sur I’anatomie du cerveau, Paris, 1669. English translation by G. Douglas, 2 vols., 1733-34. That includes the first English translation of Stensen's work.

This splendidly designed and illustrated work contained full and accurate descriptions of all the human bones, as well as many of animals. Cheselden is the first person to have used the camera obscura to gain precision in his illustrations, and the vignette on the title page shows him using this instrument. The engravings are beautifully executed by Van der Gucht. In 1720 Cheselden inaugurated lectures on anatomy and surgery at St. Thomas’s Hospital. See the paper by K. F. Russell, Bull. Hist. Med., 1954, 28, 32-49, which mentions a trial issue of the book, dated 1728. See also Russell, British Anatomy 1525-1800, 2nd ed., 1987. Facsimile reprint of the undated remainder issue printed without text, Philadelphia, 1968.

Nesbitt pointed out that bones may develop in membrane as well as cartilage, an observation which was ignored until the 19th century. He left an outstanding description of bone growth.

27 anatomical copperplates after drawings by the most influential painter of the Italian Baroque movement, who also excelled as an architect. The editor, Cajetano Petrioli, supplied the text and small numbered anatomical “figures” in the margins of the plates. The original drawings for the plates are preserved in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow Library. See J.M. Norman (ed.), The anatomical plates of Pietro da Cortona, New York, Dover, 1986.

Lieutaud rectified many anatomical errors, described carefully the structure and relations of the heart and its cavities, and added to the contemporary knowledge concerning the bladder. The trigonum vesicae is named “Lieutaud’s trigone”.

Weitbrecht is known for “Weitbrecht’s ligament” (of the elbow), “Weitbrecht’s foramen ovale” (gap in the capsule of the shoulder joint between the glenohumeral ligaments), and “Weitbrecht’s fibers” (retinacular fibers of the neck of the femur). Translation into English of the text only, Dublin, 1839. Full English translation by E. B. Kaplan, Philadelphia, Saunders, 1969.

Accurate and beautiful engravings of the diaphragm, uterus, ovaries, vagina, arteries, with explanatory observations. About fifty years after they were originally published the most visually spectacular versions of Haller's plates of the arteries were issued in reduced format brilliantly hand-colored in Anatomical plates of the arteries of the human body, accurately coloured, and reduced from the Icones of Haller: With a concise explanation (London: E. Cox, 1808). Digital facsimile of the original Latin edition from the Max Planck Institute of the History of Science at this link.

Remarkable for its striking mezzotints printed in color. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The splendid series of 40 large copperplates of the bones and muscles in this work were drawn and engraved by Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759). They established a newstandard in anatomical illustration, and remain unsurpassed for their artistic beauty and scientific accuracy. English translation with new engravings of the plates, London, Knapton, 1749. The first extensive biography of Albinus, Punt, Bernard Siegfried Albinus…on “human nature” (Amsterdam, 1983) published the original plans, designs and drawings for Albinus's anatomy.

Santorini died before the completion of these anatomical plates which he intended to be his chef d’oeuvre. This elegantly printed volume is the only significant medical book printed by the celebrated Giambattista Bodoni for the Duke of Parma.

The first serious study of this subject and the most original anatomical work by the greatest of the Monro dynasty. See No. 1385.