FALLOPIUS, GABRIEL. 1523-1562.


Observationes anatomicae. Cologne: Heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1562. 8vo (152 x 91 mm). Woodcut printer's device on title. 20th century leather, backstrip lacking. Some minor browning. First German printing of Fallopius's important commentary on De humani corporis fabrica by Vesalius. "Fallopius studied under Vesalius and became professor of anatomy at Ferrara (1547) Pisa (1548), and Padua (1551). He was a careful dissector, great observer, and an accurate recorder. He discovered and first described the chorda tympani and semicircular canals and correctly described the structure and course of the cerebral vessels. He enumerated all the nerves of the eye and introduced a number of anatomical names. He is eponymously remembered by the Fallopian tube and the Fallopian aqueduct" (Garrison-Morton). The first edition was published in Venice in 1561. Adams F-143; Garrison-Morton 378.2, 1208, and 1537; See Norman 757.