Elementorum myologiae specimen seu Musculi descriptio Geometrica. Cui accedunt canis carchariae dissectum caput, et dissectus piscis ex canum genere

Author: Steno, Nicolai [Niels Steensen]
Title: Elementorum myologiae specimen seu Musculi descriptio Geometrica. Cui accedunt canis carchariae dissectum caput, et dissectus piscis ex canum genere
Publication: Florence: Ex Typographia Sub Signo Stellaie, 1667
Edition: First edition

Description: First edition. 4to, 24x17cm, [8], 123pp., final two leaves of text (Q1-2) in facsimile. 3 folding woodcut plates and 3 of 4 engraved plates on fold-out sheets (lacking Tab. VII). Woodcut Medici arms on title, woodcut diagrams, initials in text. Contemporary vellum, somewhat stained but sound, title on spine in holograph, red sprinkled edges. Tab. V poorly impressed along top edge, with the figure labels cut off, else clean internally.

First edition of this important work from pioneering Danish biological scientist, Niels Steensen (1638-1686). The treatise, with its famous shark's head engraving, outlined a revolutionary theory on the formation of fossils. Steensen compared the teeth of his recently dissected shark to those objects found in beds of rock which his contemporaries called glossopetra or tongue-stones. The work was also important in furthering the science of muscular mechanics, Steensen giving a geometric analysis of structure and showing the cause of muscle hardening during contraction to be tension of individual fibers.

Garrison-Morton 577.


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Seller ID: 5384

Subject: Early Printing, Illustration, Science