Beschreibung:

MATTHEW BAILLIE (1761-1823) A Series of Engravings, Accompanied with Explanations, which are Intended to Illustrate the Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body . London: W. Bulmer & Co. for J. Johnson and G. and W. Nicol, 1803. 2° (318 x 244mm). 73 engraved plates by William Skelton James Basire and James Heath after watercolour drawings after William Clift Half-title and blank 2I4. (Some minor foxing and some light offsetting onto text, some marginal dampstaining, occasionally affecting text or plates, a few plates trimmed touching number.) Contemporary half mottled calf over mottled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, others decorated with harp tool, sprinkled yellow edges, silk marker (a little rubbed and scuffed, corners lightly bumped, splitting on hinges). Provenance : John Osborn, F.R.S. (1743-1814, pencilled note in English on margin of plate facing p. 155 citing Sir Everard Home's Diseases of the Prostate Gland , London: 1811) -- SAMUEL THOMAS VON SOEMMERRING (1755-1830, autograph inscription on verso of half-title: 'E donatione J. Osborn. FRS S.Th. Soemmerring') -- Herbert McLean Evans (1882-1971, bookplate) -- Irwin J. Pincus, M.D. (his sale, Christie's New York, 6 December 2004, lot 22) VON SOEMMERRING'S COPY OF THE FIRST COLLECTED EDITION OF 'THE FIRST ATLAS OF PATHOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS' (Norman). A Series of Engravings was intended to accompany Baillie's Morbid Anatomy (but nevertheless includes detailed explanations of each plate), and was first published in ten parts, between 1799 and 1802: 'The complete work [as here], with additional half-title, dedication (to Dr. Pitcairn) and index, was issued in 1803; for this edition, the first fascicule was reprinted in slightly larger type, so that some lines have fewer words and some paragraphs more lines than in the first printing' (Norman). The plates are based on watercolours by William Clift the amanuensis and artist-in-residence of Baillie's uncle, the anatomist John Hunter Particularly notable amongst them is plate VI in fascicule I, which is the first illustration of the congenital cardiac defect Transposition of the Great Arteries (characterised by the aorta stemming from the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery from the left ventricle, rather than vice versa), which had first been described by Baillie in the second edition of Morbid Anatomy in 1797 and was first illustrated here -- 'the heart, which is represented in this Plate, is so singular an instance of monstrosity, that we have been induced to give an engraving of it in two points of view'. AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY LINKING TWO OF THE FOREMOST ANATOMISTS OF THE EARLY NINETEETH CENTURY: this copy was presented by Osborn to von Soemmerring, 'the most famous German anatomist of the early nineteenth century' (DSB) and translator of Baillie's Morbid Anatomy . Von Soemmerring had travelled in Holland, Germany and England in 1778-1779, when he had met Baillie's uncles William and John Hunter and in 1794 he published his translation (with additions) of Morbid Anatomy , a year after the first English edition, and, in turn, the second English edition of 1797 was augmented by the new material which von Soemmerring had added to his translation; a second edition of the translation appeared in 1805, and in 1820 von Soemmerring contributed a commentary to Carl Hohnbaum's translation of the Appendix to the Morbid Anatomy . The donor of this copy was John Osborn, who was (like Baillie) a Fellow of the Royal Society; Osborn was elected in 1777 (his sponsors included Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander), when he was described as 'formerly of Christ Church Oxford, and many years His Majesty's Minister at several Courts abroad'. According to I.D. Parry's Select Illustrations ... of Bedfordshire (London: 1827), Osborn was 'ambassador at the Court of Saxony, and died at Rudolstadt, in that kingdom, in 1814. By his will, he left 100 guineas e