BOURGERY, JEAN BAPTISTE MARC. 1797-1849.


Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'homme, comprenant la médicine opératoire. Paris: C.-A. Delaunay, 1831-54. 16 volumes (including 8 plate atlases). Folio (427 x 322 mm). 8 engraved titles, hand-colored lithographed frontispiece, and 726 lithographed plates (mostly hand-colored, 10 folding) after Nicolas Henri Jacob. Contemporary French half morocco gilt, top edge gilt, minor rubbing to extremities. Occasionally some light browning and staining.FIRST EDITION of "one of the most beautifully illustrated anatomical and surgical treatises ever published in any language" (Heirs). The work was published in parts over 23 years and represented the life work of Bourgery, who died before its completion. "The complete treatise of human anatomy by J. M. Bourgery and N. H. Jacob, published between 1831 and 1854 ... represents one of the most remarkable works in the whole history of anatomy, and in any case is the most outstanding to be published in the 19th century. The work is monumental: in large folio format, it comprises eight volumes of text totaling 2108 pages, and atlas volumes with 725 plates, representing a total of 3750 figures" (Le Minor and Sick). The hand-colored lithographs were executed after drawings by Nicolas Henri Jacob (1781-1871), a pupil of David. Jacob made his drawings from dissections and other anatomical preparations, some of which were prepared by Claude Bernard. The detail of the illustrations and quality of the coloring are unsurpassed. In addition to the anatomical plates, there are 191 hand colored plates that graphically depict all of the major operations performed in the pre-anesthesia and pre-antisepsis era. This is without a doubt the most spectacular anatomical atlas ever produced. [With:] 1) BOURGERY. Notice sur les Titres de M. Bourgery, comme candidat... dans la section de medicine et de chirurgie de l'Academie des Sciences. 4to, original wrappers. INSCRIBED BY BOURGERY. 2) TISSERON and DE QUINCY. "Notice sur M. le docteur Bourgery." Paris, 1846. Offprint from Archives des hommes du jour. 3) Bourgery and Jacob. Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery.... complete edition of the coloured plates... Edited by Jean-Marie le Minor and Henri Sick. Cologne: Taschen, 2005. Heirs of Hippocrates 1569; Roberts & Tomlinson pp 537-38; Waller 1372; Wellcome II, p 214.