LICETI, Fortunio (1577-1657). De perfecta constitutione hominis in utero liber unus. Padua: Pietro Bertelli, 1616.

Uncut in a contemporary binding—Galileo's polymathic colleague on embryology. Printed in the same year as the author's famous book on monsters, this treatise brings the same level of imagination to the world of embryology, presenting many outmoded yet colorful theories. Some of these included preformation, the concept that images experienced by the mother during pregnancy can be imprinted on the embryo, and the idea that "the male embryo was twice as hot and developed twice as quickly as the female" (Needham). Liceti published on a dizzying array of subjects, and in 1645 was named the first professor of Theoretical Medicine at Padua. Krivatsy 6965. See also Needham, History of Embryology, p. 114.

Quarto (220 x 167mm). Woodcut device on title and large woodcut device on colophon (light browning and some light dampstaining). Contemporary carta rustica, remains of paper label on spine and joints (spine renewed). Provenance: a few early reader's marks.