Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 382

SEVERIN PINEAU (1550?-1619) De integritatis et corruptionis virginum notis: graviditate item & partu naturali mulierum, opuscula. Apud Franciscum Hegerum 1641 182, 298 [40] pp., illus., fold. plates. 12.7 cm.

Although this curious collection of treatises, chiefly on gynecology and obstetrics, went through several editions, it is not often found, particularly with all of the plates, as some editions were confiscated because of the frank (for those times) discussion of virginity and its method of loss. Pineau was a Parisian physician and surgeon to the king. The present edition of his work, an unusual treatise on the anatomical signs of virginity, also contains tracts on embryology, gynecology, and cardiology. Bonacciuoli, a physician in Ferrara, first published this gynecological work, dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia, early in the sixteenth century. Platter (see No. 372) was an anatomist, the earliest supporter of Vesalius north of the Alps, and professor of medicine at Basel. One of the earliest German anatomists to dissect the human body, he published a well-known book of anatomy (see No. 372) illustrated with numerous plates, many of which were copied from Vesalius. In the present work Platter is chiefly concerned with two questions of developmental anatomy regarding the origin of the arteries, veins, and nerves from the brain and the relationship of the veins to the heart and liver. A famed French philosopher, astronomer, physicist, and opponent of Harvey, Gassendi here gives the first description of the foramen ovale of the heart and its vestigial nature in the mature organ, thus finally proving the impervious nature of the interventricular septum. This interesting treatise on the heart appears only in this collection; there is no separate edition. Sebisch, professor of medicine in the university of his native Strasbourg, provides here another curious tract on virginity.

See Related Record(s): 372

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 802 (1639 ed.); Osler 3680 (1650 ed.); Waller 7450; Wellcome 5042 (1639 ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.