DUVERNEY, Guichard Joseph (1648-1730)

Traité de l'organe de l'ouie contenant la structure, les usages et les maladies de toutes les parties de l'oreille

Paris: chez Estienne Michallet, 1683.
12mo: a12 A--I12 (blanks I10--12), 120 leaves, pp. [24] 210 [6] (last 6 blank). Typographic device on title, woodcut headpieces and initials. Plates: 16 engraved plates with letterpress captions: numbered Planche I--XVI, unsigned (bound as throwouts at the end). Leaf size and condition: 158 x 90mm. Some light browning and spotting as usual, caption of plate VI cropped affecting a letter at the end of each line. Binding: Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine, lettered direct in second compartment, marbled pastedowns, plain free endleaves, sprinkled edges. Rubbed but a well preserved binding. Provenance and annotation: Jean Bouillet (1690--1777) with inscription on title 'Boüillet de l'Acad. R. des Bell. Lettr. Sc. & Arts, Doct. en Med. de la faculté de Montpellier' and errata on a12v crossed through and corrected in the text. See below for further notes on Bouillet. References: Asherson 1; Grolier One Hundred Books famous in Medicine 36; Garrison--Morton 1545; Norman 674; Hagelin Rare and Important Medical Books in the Library of the Karolinska Institute pp. 98--99.
First edition. A Latin edition appeared in 1684 and there were many editions and translations up to 1750, including an English translation in 1737.
§ The first scientific monograph on the structure, function and diseases of the ear, a classic of physiology. Duverney was the first to suggest the theory of hearing later developed by, and credited to, Helmholz. The earlier works of Eustachius, Coiter, Casserio and Ingrassia had chapters on the ear but these were mainly devoted to the anatomy. Duverny is regarded as the founder of otology. With Perrault, Swammerdam and others Duverney laid the foundations of comparative anatomy. In 1679 he became professor of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi where he raised the anatomical experiments to a standard they had never reached before and attracted a huge audience. This was his only major independent work, though he collaborated on a number of others, and his dissections were illustrated by Gautier d'Agoty in his famous colour-printed atlases. The engravings, which are unsigned, are traditionally attributed to Sebastien Le Clerc (1637--1714), the outstanding French engraver of the time. According to Asherson 'the anatomical details could not be better illustrated today'. Each plate leaf is printed with the engraving and an extensive letterpress caption below or to one side of it. An excellent copy from the library of Jean Bouillet of Béziers who gained his medical degree at Montpellier in 1707 and became a leading member of the academies of Béziers, Montpellier and Bordeaux, and a corresponding member of the Paris academy. He contribed scientific articles to the Encyclopédie. Literature: Nehemiah Asherson, A Bibliography of Editions of du Verney's Traite de l'organe de l'ouie published between 1683 & 1750 (Ashford, 1979); F. J. Cole, History of Comparative Anatomy (1944), pp. 393--442; R. Scott Stevenson and Douglas Guthrie, A history of otolaryngology (Edinburgh, 1949), pp. 38--39.

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• libraire: Roger Gaskell (GREAT BRITAIN)