BAGLIVI, GIORGIO. 1668-1707.


Four titles, comprising: 1. De fibra motrice, et morbosa EpIstola ad Alexandrum Pascoli. Perugia: Constantino, 1700. 4to (207 x 155 mm). Engraved frontispiece. Modern brown morocco, decorated in blind. Ink notations, some canceled, on free front endpaper. First Edition. Norman 104.2. De praxi medica ... accedunt dissertationes novae. Rome: Domenico Antonio Hercules, 1696. 8vo (160 x 105 mm). Engraved plate. Contemporary vellum. Ink notations, browning. First edition. Provenance: Haskell F. Norman (bookplate).3. Opera omnia medico-practica et anatomica. Lyons: Anisson and Jean Posuel, 1704. 4to (224 x 171 mm). Engraved portrait and one engraved plate. Contemporary vellum. Covers soiled, browning. Provenance: Charles Lucas, M.D. (armorial bookplate on front paste-down); Haskell F. Norman (bookplate on front paste-down). Garrison-Morton 68.4. The Practice of Physick, Reduc'd to the Ancient Way of Observations. London: Printed for Andrew Bell, et. al., 1704. 8vo (188 x 112 mm). Modern calf, gilt titles on spine, marbled endpapers. Lacking tarantula plate, extensive notations on rear blank leaves, browning. Wellcome II, p 84. "Baglivi, professor of anatomy at Rome, had a short but brilliant career. He wrote Praxis Medica and de Fibra Motrice, and originated the so-called 'solidar' pathology.... He was able to distinguish between the smooth and striated muscles; and he discovered the histological distinction between the two categories of fibers. His fundamental research concerning the fibers made him one of the most important students of muscle physiology before Haller" (Garrison-Morton). Beyond the physiology of nerves and muscles, Baglivi also wrote an important medical work on one of the most controversial epidemics of the 16th and 17th centuries: Tarantism, "a nervous disease characterized by hysteria and a mania for dancing," which was thought to be a disease caused by the bite of a tarantula spider, the malady having spread from Taranto in southern Italy to the surrounding regions.