BELL, CHARLES. 1774-1842.


Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821. Oblong folio (285 x 393 mm). 20 engraved plates. Contemporary boards with later cloth backstrip. Chipping to corners of boards, light offsetting from plates, spotting. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING of "one of the most remarkable illustrated books in the history of surgery...." (Norman). Bell's drawings of the operations he had performed were the basis of the engravings, prepared by Thomas Landseer (1794-1880). Garrison-Morton 5588; Heirs of Hippocrates 1305; Norman 174; Waller 857; Wellcome II, p 136.