FABRIZIO, GIROLAMO. C.1533-1619.


De venarum ostiolis. Padua: Lorenzo Pasquato, 1603. Folio (388 x 266 mm). 13 leaves. One double-page and 7 full-page engraved illustrations; printer's woodcut device on title, ornamental woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. Modern boards. Title with blank lower and fore-margin renewed and with patch in lower blank margin, double-page plate with fore-margins and lower margins renewed touching outer portion of image and supplied in facsimile, plate 4 slightly cropped at bottom, some show-through of engravings, several illustrations cropped to or within plate mark. Provenance: Irwin J. Pincus (his sale, Christie's New York 6 June, 2004, lot 100). FIRST EDITION of the first systematic and accurate study of the structures, distribution and position of the venous valves. "Fabricius, teacher of Harvey at Padua, discovered the venous valves, and illustrated them in life-size copperplates in this monograph. He failed to recognize their true function, however, considering this to be merely a delaying of the blood flow. This work must have influenced Harvey to turn his experimental efforts toward an accurate explanation for the existence of the venous valves. This line of research eventually led him to develop an accurate knowledge of how the circulation worked" (Garrison-Morton). Fabrici's plate illustrating the valves of the arm was the model for the plates illustrating Harvey's De motu cordis. WITH: FRANKLIN, KENNETH J. Translator. De venarum ostiolis 1603 of Hieronymus Fabricius of Acquapendente (1553-1619), Facsimile Edition. Baltimore: Charles C. Thomas, 1933. 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth, printed dust jacket. Includes supplementary Biographical Note, grey printed wrappers, bound with staples. Minor wear, some chipping to dust jacket. Garrison-Morton 757; Grolier Medicine 27B (27A is Harvey's De motu cordis); NLM/Krivatsy 3831; Norman 750; Waller 2886.