Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 962

LEOPOLDO MARCO ANTONIO CALDANI (1725-1813) Icones anatomicae. Ex calcographia Josephi Picotti 1801-1813 Front., 264 plates and 229 outline plates. 68.7 cm.

Leopoldo Caldani succeeded Morgagni in the chair of anatomy at Padua, where he was already professor of theoretical medicine. In his later years he was assisted in the publication of his anatomical works by his nephew, Floriano Caldani, also a professor at Padua. They worked together on this massive and beautiful compilation of the best anatomic representations of past years. For example, the representations of bones and muscles follow Albinus, the teeth and sexual organs are after John Hunter, the lymphatics after Mascagni, and the pregnant uterus and embryos after William Hunter and Soemmerring. Among the other major anatomists represented are Monro, Scarpa, Cruikshank, Ruysch, Loder, Cotugno, Haller, Sandifort, Santorini, and Camper. However, many of the plates were drawn from original preparations by the younger Caldani. A large and striking lithographic title page in Volume I pictures a landscape with the flaying and opening of a cadaver. This volume is dated 1801 and, as lithography was invented in 1796 and came into use a few years later, this is one of the earliest lithographs used in book illustration. The text is contained in the Iconum anatomicarum explicatio, a considerably smaller in size and intended to accompany the plates. It has an unusual arrangement in that Volumes II and III of the text pertain to Volume II of the plates, while Volumes I, IV, and V refer to Volumes I, III, and IV of the plates.

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, pp. 327-328; Wellcome II, p. 287

Gift of John Martin, M.D.