SPIEGHEL, ADRIAAN VAN DEN. 1578-1625.


Opera quae extant omnia. Edited by Johannes vander Linden. Amsterdam: J. Blaeu, 1645. 2 volumes in 1. Folio (440 x 279 mm). Engraved title, engraved portrait, 116 engraved plates, and one engraved illustration in text. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt paneling of double fillets, spine in 7 compartments, gilt-lettered red morocco spine labels in second, spine ends repaired, some rubbing. Light browning and staining. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. "Spieghel succeeded Giulio Casserio to the chair of anatomy at the University of Padua; his name survives in the terms linea Spigelii (the linea alba on the midline aponeurosis of the abdominal muscles) and lobus caudatus hepatis Spigelii. This collected edition of his works, edited by Johannes vander Linden, contains the three published during his lifetime: Isagogae in Rem Herbariam (1606), De lumbrico lato liber (1618) and De semitertiana (1624), as well as De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri X (1627), and De Formatu Foetu (1626), left in manuscript on Spiegel's death ... De Formatu Foetu was edited by Spieghel's son-in-law Liberalis Crema, who illustrated the 1626 edition with nine copperplates purchased from Casserio's grandson" (Norman). These plates, which depict the pregnant uterus, placenta and fetus, are among Odoardo Fialetti's most beautiful anatomical engravings. In the Opera Omnia, vander Linden added to De Formatu Foetu a tenth engraving representing the hymen. The volume also includes the 4th complete edition of Harvey's De motu cordis. Keynes points out that an open copy of Spieghel's folio is laid before Harvey in the contemporary portrait now in the Hunterian collection. Garrison-Morton 61.2; Heirs of Hippocrates 415; Keynes, Harvey, 5; Krivatsy 11294; Norman 1987; Russell 354; Waller 9124.