Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 940

JACQUES FABIAN GAUTIER D'AGOTY (1717-1785) Anatomie de la tête. Chez le sieur Gautier, M. Duverney, Quillau 1748 [22] ll., 8 col. plates. 55.6 cm.

Gautier, a French printmaker, was, like Ladmiral (see No. 841 ff.), an assistant to Le Blon and, also like Ladmiral, claimed the color printing process as his own. He published some ten collections of colored plates of various portions of the anatomy, and he was the first person to print anatomical plates in color on a large scale. Although Choulant writes that "his anatomic illustrations . . . impress the critical observer with their arrogance and charlatanry and do not recommend themselves to the student of anatomy either for their faithfulness and reliability or for their technique" (Choulant-Frank, p. 270), they are of great interest from the point of view of book illustration and the history of anatomic illustration. The dissections and preparations for the eight large figures in this atlas of the anatomy of the head were prepared by Joseph Guichard Du Verney (see No. 665), and some of the plates are among the most elaborate produced by Gautier, especially notable for the intricate network of blood vessels which are meticulously indicated by direct color printing. This work is extremely rare.

See Related Record(s): 841 665

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, p. 271; Cushing G167; Wellcome III, p. 97

Gift of Henry J. Prentiss