Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 470

PIETRO DA CORTONA (1596-1669) Tabulae anatomicae. Impensis Fausti Amidei, Ex typographia Antonii de Rubeis 1741 [4] 84 pp., 27 plates. 43.4 cm.

Cortona was an Italian painter and architect, and this rare volume containing twenty-seven large anatomical plates has been attributed to him. Begun in 1618, the plates were engraved by Luca Ciamberlano, but it is not known why they lay unpublished for more than a century. They were edited, in this first edition, by Gaetano Petrioli (fl. 1740) and it is likely that either he or a previous owner of the plates added the numerous torsos and other anatomical parts that surround each main figure. The anatomical additions were taken from the works of Vesalius, Casserio, and others by a different artist and engraver. The figures were removed from the plates in the second and last edition. Cortona's figures are, for the most part, representations of entire bodies in action or in some active attitude and were intended for use by physicians.

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, p. 235-239; Cushing B334; Waller 983 (1788 ed.); Wellcome II, p. 146

Gift of John Martin, M.D.