Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 610

NICOLAUS STENO (1638-1686) Elementorum myologiae specimen. Apud Johan. Janssonium à Waesberge, & Viduam Elizei Weyerstraet 1669 [2nd ed.]. 148 [3] pp., 7 fold. plates, illus. 14.5 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 608

Steno was born in Copenhagen where he began his medical studies under Bartholin. He then became a pupil of Sylvius' at Leiden and in 1660 became a student of Blasius' (see No. 558 ff.) at Amsterdam. It was while in Amsterdam that he discovered the parotid duct and became embroiled in a priority dispute with Blasius, who tried to claim the discovery for himself. He returned to Copenhagen in 1663 because of his mother's illness and was granted his medical degree in absentia by Leiden the following year. Steno visited Italy in 1666, became physician to Ferdinand II at Florence, and in 1675 entered the Catholic priesthood. He subsequently was named a bishop and apostolic vicar for Northern Germany and Denmark. In addition to this work, first published in 1667, Steno wrote De musculis et glandulis observationum specimen (Copenhagen, 1664) in which he recognized the muscular nature of the heart.

See Related Record(s): 558

Cited references: Cushing S402; Garrison-Morton 577 (1st ed., 1667); Osler 4021 (1st ed.); Waller 9224

Gift of John Martin, M.D.