Gottingen: Abr. Vandenhoeck Viduam, Jo. Alb. Barmeieri. 1778. Edition: First Edition. , Binding: Full contemporary calf, expertly rebacked in matching style. Spine with 5 raised bands. Gilt rules and motifs in compartments. Title in gilt on red label in 2. Front and top board edges with decorative gilt rolls. Front and bottom edges speckled red. Top edges black. , Notes: Text in Latin.
A near fine example of “Soemmerring’s very rare inaugural dissertation about the anatomy of the brain and the origin and classification of the twelve cranial nerves.” Including 4 plates, 3 of which fold out, engraved by Carl Christian Glassbach, Jr., after drawings by Soemmerring, who was known for his “superlative illustrations.” With dedication to Soemmerring’s father. Volume bound with an “enthusiastic assessment” of the text by Ernst Gottfried Baldinger, Soemmerring’s professor, which includes a “brief historical survey of developments in the knowledge of cerebral anatomy.”

Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring (1755–1830) was a German physician, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist, and inventor. Soemmerring is credited with discovering the macula in the retina of the human eye. His investigations on the brain and the nervous system, sensory organs, the embryo and its malformations, the structure of the lungs, among other research made him one of the most important German anatomists.
Soemmerring was 23 years old when he wrote Basi Encephali, in which he described the organization of the cranial nerves as part of this doctoral work; the study is still valid today. Until he wrote this account, “the prevailing view was of 9 pairs of cranial nerves as described by Thomas Willis. It is astonishing that such an important discovery was the work of a student, and it bears testimony to his precocious powers of dissection and observation, not least because it plainly contradicted a long established ‘fact.’” Soemmerring published many writings in the fields of medicine, anatomy and neuroanatomy, anthropology, paleontology, astronomy, and philosophy. He also wrote about fossil crocodiles, and in 1812 he described Ornithocephalus antiquus, now known as Pterodactylus. He was also the first to accurately draw a representation of the female skeleton structure.


, Size: Quarto (231x184 mm)., References: Blake 424; Garrison-Morton-Norman 1383; Norman 1972, Pages: P. 1 – 184. Blank (2). Title. Blank. Dedication. Blank. Note from the author (2). Liber Primus (P. 1 – 25). Liber Secundus (P. 26 – 68). Liber Tertius (P. 69 – 158). Liber Quartus (P. 159 – 169). Liber Quintus (P. 170 – 184). [Ernestus Godofredus Baldinger]: Title. Blank. P. 3 – 16. Blank (2)., Category: Book Europe Germany; Book Medical;. Item #B6736

Price: $5,500.00