HARVEY, WILLIAM. 1578-1657.


De motu cordis & sanguinis in animalibus Anatomica Exercitatio. Leiden: Joannis Maire, 1639. 2 parts in one volume. 4to (183 x 138 mm) Woodcut device on title, 2 engraved plates (and 4 additional plates in the Aselli). Contemporary calf, wear and chipping to spine and edges. Slight dampstaining to inner margin at beginning, some light browning and staining. Provenance: Guillaume de Lamoignon (1617-1677), (crowned cyper "L" on A2, printed paper label "Bibliotheca Lamoniana" on inside front cover; his library was later bought by Thomas Payne, who added the label, and auctioned in 1793). SECOND COMPLETE EDITION (first 1628) of one of the most important books in the history of medicine, comprising Harvey's discovery and experimental proof of the circulation of the blood. "Together with Vesalius's Fabrica (1543), Harvey's De motu cordis shares the honor as the greatest book in the history of medicine ... the cornerstone of modern physiology and medicine." (Garrison-Morton.) The first edition was insufficient in several aspects: it contained a long list of errata and was printed during the 30-year war on poor paper. The second edition, printed in Venice in 1635, was published with a shorter introduction, without chapters I and XVI, and without the important copper plates. This 1639 edition, however, contains the complete text, the copper plates, and includes the counter arguments of Parisano (1567-1643), and Primerose (c1598-1659). All early editions are very rare. See Garrison-Morton 759; Heirs of Hippocrates 417; Keynes 3; See PMM 127; Waller 4089; Wellcome I, p 3070.