ESTIENNE, CHARLES. C. 1505-1564.


De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres. Una cum figuris, & incisionum declarationibus, a Stephano Riverio Chirurgo compositis. Paris: Simon de Colines, 1545. Folio (363 x 245 mm). Collation: *-**6; A-Z8 AA6. 202 leaves. Roman type, side-notes and index in italic. Printer's woodcut device (Schreiber's "Tempus I") on title. 62 full-page woodcut illustrations printed from 56 blocks, one signed S.R. (Stephanus Riverius), 7 others signed by Jean Jollat, either with his name or with his Mercury symbol, a few dated 1530, 1531 or 1532, 4 of these plus one other cut signed with the Lorraine cross and cut possibly workshop of Geofrey Tory, 101 small woodcut diagrams in the text (including repeats). 9-, 6- and 3-line white-on-black crible initials, a few 3-line woodcut initials. 19th-century quarter vellum, light wear to edges. Some light browning and occasional minor marginal staining. Provenance: Warren G. Smirl (his sale, Sotheby's London, 11 November 1994, lot 129).FIRST EDITION OF THE FINEST ANATOMICAL WORK OF THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE. The "first published work to include illustrations of the whole external venous and nervous systems ... The physician author was the son of Henri Estienne, the founder of the Estienne dynasty of scholar-printers, and the son-in-law of the printer of this book, Simon de Colines. The magnificent woodcuts in this work were by Jean ("Mercure") Jollat and the surgeon/artist and collaborator on the work, Estienne de la Riviere, possibly after designs by the Florentine artist/architect Giovanni Battista Rosso. The cuts were begun as early as 1530 by Jollat, and Estienne and Riviere collaborated on the book as early as 1539. However publication of this manual of dissection was delayed because of a lawsuit brought against Estienne by Riviere. Had the book appeared prior to 1543 as planned, it would have eclipsed some of the innovation of Vesalius's Fabrica" (Garrison-Morton). "Most of the cuts have the anatomical portions of the figure on separate pieces inserted into the blocks. Kellett suggests that the male figures in this series which are clearly corpses supported by trees and masonry may be based on anatomical designs known to have been made by Giovanni Battista Rosso from disinterred bodies from a burial ground at Borgo, the Rosso sketches providing the figure into which the La Rivière dissections could be inserted" (Mortimer). Adams S-1725; BM STC French 155; Brunet II, 1073; Choulant-Frank, pp 152-155; Cushing (Vesalius), pp 33-35; Durling 1391; Garrison-Morton 378; Heirs of Hippocrates 256; Mortimer/Harvard French 213 (the 1546 French edition); Norman 728; Renouard, Simon de Colines, pp 409-410; Waller 2819; Wellcome I, p 6076.