DU VERNEY, Guichard Joseph Traité de l'organe de l'ouie contenant la structure, les usages et les maladies de toutes les parties de l'oreille. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1683
12mo (158 x 90 mm), pp [xxiv] 210 [6, being three terminal blank leaves], with woodcut headpieces and initials, and 16 engraved plates with letterpress captions; some light browning and spotting as usual, caption of plate VI cropped affecting a letter at the end of each line, a fine copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine, lettered direct in second compartment, marbled pastedowns, plain free endleaves, sprinkled edges, rubbed. £4500
First edition of the first scientific monograph on the structure, function and diseases of the ear, considered a classic of physiological research. Duverney (1648-1730) was the first to suggest the theory of hearing later developed by, and accredited to, Helmholtz. The earlier works of Eustachius, Coiter, Casserio and Ingrassia had chapters on the ear but these were mainly devoted to the anatomy and Duverney is regarded as the founder of otology.
With Perrault, Swammerdam and others Duverney laid the foundations of comparative anatomy. In 1679 he became professor of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi where he raised the anatomical experiments to a standard they had never reached before and attracted a huge audience. This was his only major independent work, though he collaborated on a number of others, and his dissections were illustrated by Gautier d'Agoty in his famous colour-printed atlases.
The engravings are traditionally attributed to Sebastien Le Clerc (1637-1714), the outstanding French engraver of the time and 'the anatomical details could not be better depicted today' (Hagelin p 99). Each plate leaf is printed with the engraving and an extensive letterpress caption below or to one side of it.
Provenance: Jean Bouillet (1690-1777) with inscription on title 'Boüillet de l'Acad. R. des Bell. Lettr. Sc. & Arts, Doct. en Med. de la faculté de Montpellier' and errata crossed through and corrected in the text. Jean Bouillet of Béziers gained his medical degree at Montpellier in 1707 and became a leading member of the academies of Béziers, Montpellier and Bordeaux, and a corresponding member of the Paris academy. He wrote a number of medical books and contributed scientific articles to the Encyclopédie. The binding is contemporary so Bouillet presumably bought the book second hand.
Asherson 1; Grolier Medicine 36; Garrison and Morton 1545; Norman 674; Hagelin Karolinska Institute pp 98-99
£4500
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