Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 530

BERNARDINO GENGA (1620-1690) Anatomia chirurgica . . . & un breve trattato della circolazione del sangue. Il Longhi 1687 [32] 332 [16] pp. 14 cm.

An authoritative anatomist and surgeon in Rome, Genga stressed the importance of solid anatomical knowledge for the surgeon. This work, originally published in 1672, has been called the "first book devoted entirely to surgical anatomy" (Garrison-Morton 384) and remained a widely used manual for at least fifty years. In the tract appended to this work, Genga showed himself to be one of the first Italians to accept Harvey's theory on the circulation of the blood. But Genga also maintained that the discovery was made by Colombo and Cesalpino before Harvey. The parts played by those two Italian investigators and anatomists in the unfolding of the facts of circulatory physiology have long been a point of study and argument among medical historians.

Cited references: Cushing G189 (1686 ed.); Garrison-Morton 384 (1672 ed.); Waller 3470; Wellcome III, p. 102

Gift of John Martin, M.D.