HOFMANN, CASPAR. 1572-1648.


De thorace, eiusque partibus commentarius tripartitus. Frankfurt: Wechel, 1627. Folio (316 x 202 mm). Woodcut vignette on title page, repeated on verso of final text leaf. 20th century half tan morocco and marbled boards. Browning throughout, lacking final blank (N4).This rare work compares Aristotelian and Galenic views regarding the heart and lungs. Published just one year before Harvey's De motu cordis, Hofmann's book represents an important step in rejecting Galen's teaching that arterial blood reached the lungs through the pulmonary veins (Pagel). "Caspar Hofmann [was] ... one of the few contemporaries quoted in Harvey's book ... Hofmann rejects with great emphasis and finality the interventricular pores of Galen" (Walter Pagel, William Harvey's Biological Ideas, p 190). Krivatsy 5912.