JF Ptak Science Books Post 1874 [One in a series on the History of Blank, Empty and Missing Things.]
The remarkable engravings below are even more so when you consider that they were published more than two hundred years afer the death of their originator. Bartolomeo Eustachi (1500/1524-1574) was one of the founding member of a very small school of modern anatomy (another being Vesalius) who undertook very careful dissections in his study of the body, finishing (in 1552) a work of paramount importance just nine years after the publication of Vesalius' revolutionary work--it was a work that would remain unpublished for 162 years. The threat and fear of excommunication and other reprisals at the hands of the Catholic Church prevented its publication, the full work not seeing the light of day until 1714. It would be published several times more in the 18th century, a great tribute to an anatomist whose work was still being studied more than 200 years after its completion.
One of the great missing books then belongs to Eustachi, his Romanae archetypae tabulae anatomicae novis...(with the examples of images below being published in Rome in 1783) belongs to a very small class of technical/medical books published long after they should have been and which still were found to be of great and substantial use. He was an absolutely superb anatomist, using dyes and injections for visually troublesome areas, as well as early versions of "microscopes" to observe miniscule bits. He was a fine student of his physician father, well-versed in classical education, and by 1549 he was the professor of anatomy at the Archiginnasiodella Sapienza, where he was also able to avail himself of a number of cadavers for dissection.
He worked on his anatomy for several years, readying 47 plates for publication. It would come to pass that only eight of them were published during his lifetime--those on the kidney and teeth, published as De Renum structura (the first work dedicated to that organ), and De dentibus (for the teeth), respectively.
The engravings--rather, the incised plates of the engravings--went missing after Eustachi's death, and stayed so until (as noted above) 1714. According to faqs.org , Eustachi's work was still prized 160+ years later for their elegance and beauty and detail because:
"... they provided some of the best descriptions of the base of the brain, the sympathetic nervous system (the nerves that control the constriction of blood vessels, among other things), the vascular system, and the structure of the larynx."
[More images below]
among many other reasons.
I can't help but wonder what the result of the publication of this book would have affected if it had been available in 1552. It stands to reason that if it was still being used in 1789, and still useful and respect and "current", then it would lead me to believe that it would have had a major impact 227 years earlier.
(Source: Bartholomeo Eustachi: Tabulae anatomicae. (Rome, 1783), . Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.)
Notes:
"The morphological structure of the kidney only started being seriously investigated and truly understood in the 16th century, thanks mainly to Bartolomeo Eustachio. In his De Renibus, in fact, he painstakingly described the size, consistency, location and variations of the kidney, to which modern understanding can add very little. In describing the renal parenchyma he stated that it is made up of an external and an internal substance, and recognized the central role of the renal arteries in the excretory function of the kidneys. He made observations regarding the presence of extremely fine arteries that filter urine, the nature and function of the renal tubules and the columns of external substance that protrude between the papillae. There can be no doubt that Eustachio's remarkable achievements made him a pioneer in morphological studies of the kidney."
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