illustrated by jan wandelaar

First edition of this significant and uncommon obstetrical work illustrated with four superb engravings after Jan Wandelaar. Not in the Garrison-Morton Medical Bibliography or the Norman Library of Science and Medicine.

Wilhelmus Noortwyk (c. 173-1777) trained under the famed anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus and became known for his impressive anatomical preparations. The present volume reports his 'investigations on the corpse of a young woman who died at six months gestation. Noortwyk obtained permission of the husband to excise the pregnant uterus from the corpse, and took it home for dissection... In this description, Noortwyk asserted correctly that the maternal and fetal circulations were separate'. He was 'apparently the first to inject the uterine vessels of a young woman who had died near term' (Logo & Reynolds, Wombs with a View, p. 124).

The illustrator of this volume, Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759) was the leading anatomical illustrator and engraver of the period. He had worked for Frederik Ruysch and was responsible for the monumental illustrations for Albinus's Tabulae sceleti et musculorum corporis humani (1747).

First edition; 4to (25 x 19.5 cm); 4 engraved plates and small engraving to the title, text of title printed in red and black, head and tail-pieces, errata list on the verso of the final leaf of text, contemporary inscription to the verso of the title, spotting and offsetting to contents; contemporary calf rebacked to style, red morocco label, marbled endpapers, ticket of the Bibliotheque Charpentier to the front pastedown, boards rubbed and crackled with wear at the corners and some spots along the edges, a very good copy; 217pp.