Exposition exacte ou tableaux anatomiques en taillès-douces des différentes parties du corps humain. de DISDIER, Francois-Michel - 1784

Etienne Charpentier, 1784. Hardcover. See Description. Tall folio (385 mm.). The entire book, including the text, was printed from engraved copper plates – 60 plates (an illustrated title page plate, 29 anatomical plates and 30 calligraphic letterpress plates). Bound in a contemporary or near contemporary binding with calf spine and decorative paste paper boards - rubbed, edges shelf worn, old ink stain on rear cover. Both the upper portion of the spine and the tail cap are carefully restored. Board corners are neatly repaired. Interior contains an occasional minor spots of marginal foxing; a couple of tiny holes or paper defects are present on the text plate opposite plate 20. The leaves are otherwise generally clean. Francois-Michel Disdier (1708-1781) was a professor of surgery and a drawing master at the Academy of Painting in Paris. His "Tableaux anatomiques", a deluxe anatomy book for physicians, was first published in 1758. Many of the plates were done by Crepy and Charpentier – some after the style of Vesalius and others following Eustachi. The engraved title page, designed by François Bouchet, depicts students in an anatomy class studying a cadaver. The whole scene is framed in ornate baroque style. [Blake NLM, p. 122; Heirs of Hippocrates 894 – listing 1778 edition; Hirsch II, p. 190].