1775 MAGNIFICENT ATLAS OF NEUROANATOMY WITH 30 ENGRAVED PLATES. Neurographia Universalis

Toulouse: Jean-Jacques Robert, 1775. New edition.

MAGNIFICENT 18TH CENTURY EDITION OF VIEUSSENS' CELEBRATED ATLAS OF NEUROANATOMY WITH LARGE FOLDING ENGRAVED PLATES.

20 x 26 cm quarto hardcover, contemporary marbled paper covered boards, vellum tips to corners, leather spine with gilt black leather title label, gilt compartments, xv, 217, [3], 30 plates, 19 of which are folding, 2 extending to 112 cm with multiple mounted leaves. Plate VII inscribed, "J.D. Coulet sculpsit a Toulouse les 30 planches," Plate IX: "J.D. Coulet Parisiens sculpsit." The plates are remarkably bold impressions on heavy paper. Covers clean with light wear, abrasion to leather of top spine compartment, light foxing to endpapers. Binding tight, text pages and plates are crisp and unmarked, a small ink hole in text leaves 119/120 and 127/128, browning to some page edges, water stain top corner of last pages. Overall very good in custom archival mylar cover.

RAYMOND VIEUSSENS (ca. 1635 – 1715) was a French anatomist from Le Vigan. He studied medicine at the University of Montpellier where he earned his degree in 1670. He later became head physician at Hôtel Dieu Saint-Eloi in Montpellier. Vieussens is remembered for his pioneering anatomical studies of the brain and spinal cord. He performed over 500 post-mortem dissections that led to a number of discoveries in neuroanatomy, primarily in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Publication of Neurographia Universalis earned Vieussens appointment to the Academy of Sciences of Paris and the Royal Society of London. In 1688, he was introduced to King Louis XIV, who granted him an annual pension of 1000 livres.

NEUROGRAPHIA UNIVERSALIS was first published in 1684, Cf Norman 2153; Garrison Morton 1379; Heirs of Hippocrates 641; Waller 9961; DSB XIV, pp 25-26. The treatise is divided into 3 parts: the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves. Vieussens distinguished between white and gray matter, and he demonstrated that the white matter "is formed by innumerable fibers connected together, and arranged in multiple fascicles." He also described the corpus callosum connecting the 2 sides of the brain, as well as the centrum ovale and corpora striata, terms first introduced by him. [Vergani F et al. Raymond de Vieussens and his contribution to the study of white matter anatomy. Historical vignette. J Neurosurg 117:1070-1075, 2012]. The copy offered here is the last edition, edited by Vieussens' grandson with 30 new plates engraved by J.D. Coulet of Toulouse. In addition to the original Latin text, also included is a review of the work in French by Mr. Sylvester, physician to the king of Great Britain.

Cf Blake JB. 18th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine (1979): Volume 4 of Vieussens Histoire des maladies internes. Toulouse, 1774-75, 4 volumes. 7 copies of the 1775 edition of Neurographia Universalis alone are listed in Worldcat: Washington University, St Louis; University of Washington, Seattle; University of Paris Cite; University of Toulouse (2 copies); University of Strasbourg, University of Madrid.