SANTORINI, Giovanni Domenico (1681-c.1737). Anatomici summi septemdecim tabulae quas nunc primum edit atque explicat iisque alias addit de structura mammarum et de tunica testis vaginali. Edited by Michel Girard. Parma: [Giambattista Bodoni for] Regia typographia, 1775.

Fine first edition "one of the finest anatomies of the eighteenth century" and the only significant medical text from the press of Bodoni (Heirs of Hippocrates). Santorini was a skilled dissector whose plans for an enlarged edition of his Observationes anatomicae, for which these plates were originally intended, were derailed by his death. His images and observations, which included many new discoveries, eventually saw print 38 years later under the auspices of his student Michel Girard, who edited this spectacular anatomical atlas. In addition to Santorini's engravings, there are two plates after the anatomist Giovanni Battista Covoli and two after Michel Girard himself, who put together the extensive commentary. The actual engraving was done by a woman named Florentina Marcella under Santorini's supervision, after drawings by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. In addition to fully illustrated plates realistically depicting bodily organs, a corresponding set of labeled outline plates provide a simplified view for the student to understand anatomical processes more thoroughly. This book is unrecorded by Bodoni’s bibliographers De Lama and Brooks. Garrison-Morton 399.1; Heirs of Hippocrates 788; Norman 1888. See Kleinerman et al, "Giovanni Domenico Santorini (1681-1737): A Prominent Physician and Meticulous Anatomist," in Clinical Anatomy 27 (2014), pp. 545-547.

Folio (324 x 237mm. Frontispiece portrait and 42 engraved plates, 21 of which are key outline plates (small hole affecting text on pp. xviii, light marginal foxing to two leaves). Contemporary Italian half vellum and decorated paper boards, title labels on spine, particolored speckled edges (extremities rubbed). Provenance: Charles Salmatoris Rossillion, 1741-1822 (bookplate) – Thomas Syssel d’Aix, 1770-1828 (bookplate).