HARVEY, WILLIAM
Exercitationes de generatione animalium. Quibus accedunt quaedam De partu; De Membranis ac humoribus uteri: & De conceptione.
4to (cm 21.3), leg. in perg. coeva con tit. ms. al dorso, qq. fioritura e brunitura ma nel complesso discreta copia (ff. di guardia anter.rinnovati). Front. inciso (rifilato al marg. est. inf. giusto sotto la riga "Generatione animalium", con minima perdita); pp. (32, di cui la prima e l'ultima c. bb. orig.), 301, (3, di cui ultime 2 bb.). Prima edizione del secondo grande contributo di Harvey alla fisiologia, un classico dell'embriologia. Il problema della generazione fu al centro delle preoccupazioni di Harvey molto più di quello della circolazione del sangue, benché senza riuscire a conseguire una soluzione definitiva: "After the publication of 'De motu cordis', Harvey turned his attention to the study of generation. Even if Harvey had not discovered the circulation of the blood, his remarkable work on embryology would have placed him in the front ranks of biological scientists. Without benefit of the compound microscope, his work was necessarily limited; nevertheless, nothing comparable had been done since Aristotle. He disbelieved the previously-held doctrine of 'preformation' of the fetus, maintaining instead that it proceeds from the ovum by gradual building up of its parts. Always slow to publicize his findings, Harvey was only after some years persuaded by his friend, Sir George Ent, to put them into print" (Heirs of Hippocrates). Needham, History of Embryology, pp. 149-50). Keynes Harvey 34; Wing H1091; Garrison-Morton 467; Norman Library 1011; Osler 712; Waller 4119; Wellcome III, 220.
London, typis Du-Gardianis, impensis Octaviani Pulleyn in Coemeterio Paulino, 1651
€ 7.000,00
