COLOMBO, MATTEO REALDO. C.1516-1559.


De re anatomica libri XV. Venice: Niccolo Bevilacqua, 1559. Folio (317 x 222 mm). Woodcut title page, woodcut initials in text, woodcut device on colophon. 19th century marbled paper boards, custom cloth covered box. Dampstaining, worming to top margin not affecting text, ink marginalia and underlining, repair to colophon leaf.Provenance: Dr. N.C. Husted, Tarrytown, NY (book label). FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE, with dedication page to Pope Pius IV. A pupil of Vesalius, Colombo succeeded his teacher as chair of anatomy at the University of Padua. He shows a great understanding of the action of the heart, including the working of the pulmonary and aortic valves, but uses Servetus and Valverde's earlier works as his sources. William Harvey was aware of Colombo's description of the heartbeat published in 1559, and was clearly influenced by it. Colombo shed new light on the heart's movements, noting the dilation of the arteries heart is contracted, and the contraction of the arteries when the heart is in a more relaxed phase. He also noted the passage of blood through the lungs from the right ventricle of the heart to the left. WITH: FYE, W. BRUCE, "Realdo Colombo." Offprint from Clinical Cardiology, Volume 25, pp 135-137, 2002. Signed by the author. Adams C-2402; Garrison-Morton 378.1; Norman 501; Osler 897.