Anatomia corporum humanorum. accedunt ejusdem introductio in oeconomia animalium, et nunc primum supplementum ad appendicem latinitate donata curante Guglielmo Dundass.

In-folio massimo (515x340mm). Carte (70), 1 bianca con 1 splendida antiporta figurata e 119 tavole incise in rame a piena pagina e ripiegate così distribuite: 105 numerate 1-105, 1 non numerata e interposta tra la tavola 10 e la 11, all'appendice 9 tavole numerate 1-9, 3 numerate I-III e 1 non numerata. Frontespizio inciso a due colori con fregio, numerose incisioni in legno. Splendida copia, marginosa, con solo alcune sporadiche carte brunite. Bella legatura coeva rimontata in piena pelle bazzana con titolo in oro su tassello al dorso, tagli rossi e sguardie in carta marmorizzata. Una della più affascinanti pubblicazioni mai apparse in campo medico. L'opera anatomica del Cowper, nacque da una operazione di plagio nei confronti della 'Anatomia humani corporis' del Bidloo, alla quale aggiunse il frutto di sue personali ricerche e 9 nuove tavole nell'edizione originale inglese del 1698. In questa seconda edizione latina del 1750 (prima 1739) ne furono aggiunte altre 5 sulla base di nuovi studi, in particolare sugli organi riproduttivi maschili e femminili. Le 119 tavole comunque costituiscono uno dei punti più alti mai raggiunti dalla iconografia anatomica. 'William Cowper was born in England in 1666 and died in 1709. He practiced surgery in London and devoted himself to dissection and anatomical delineations. In 1698 he published a pretentious work The anatomy of the human body. It was a beautiful folio adorned by one hundred and fourteen plates only nine of which were original with Cowper. All the others belong to Bidloo. Bidloo having been told that Cowper was working on an English translation of his (Bidloo's) Anatomy, spoke to him about it when he was in London and offered to communicate to him various additional observations made by him since the printing of his book. Cowper assured Bidloo that he did not understand Latin well enough to undertake such a task. Meanwhile, however, he purchased from booksellers in Holland three hundred sets of Bidloo's plates, including the engraved title - page on which he had his own name skilfully pasted over that of Bidloo. He added a few new plates, made some corrections, and some additions and translated the text from the Latin into English and published the whole under his own name, merely casually referring to Bidloo in the preface' (Power - Thompson). 'Among the nine plates newly added by Cowper, which are drawn by Henry Cook and engraved by Michiel van der Gucht, are two well - executed plates, representing the front and back views of the entire musculature' (Choulant, 252-253).