De venarum ostiolis

FABRICI, Girolamo (FABRICIUS AB AQUAPENDENTE, Hieronymus)

Published by Lorenzo Pasquati, Padua, 1603

About this Item

THE VALVES OF THE VEINS. First edition, very rare first separate issue (see below), "of the first systematic study of the structure, distribution and position of the venous valves. Although the valves of the veins had been observed previously by G.B. Canano and Amato Lusitano, Fabrici studied them anew on the basis of his own observations. Perhaps because he analyzed anatomical structures in terms of their purpose, he interpreted the function of the valves as slowing down the influx of blood in order to distribute it more evenly to the various parts of the body. Although Fabrici s analysis was in part erroneous, De venarum ostiolis became his most influential work, in that it inspired his student, William Harvey, to conceptualize the circulation of the blood" (Norman). "The sumptuously printed folios which Fabricius published in 1603-1604 were issued separately, and unbound. Though they escaped Choulant s notice, they are among the rarest and most beautiful works in the history of anatomical illustration. The plates are magnificent; in fact nothing on their scale had been seen since the days of Vesalius" (Franklin). The work is most often found bound as part of Fabricius Opera anatomica (1625), without a separate title page. Franklin cites only the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Physicians, the Radcliffe Library (Oxford) and the New York Academy of Medicine all copies bound up under the 1625 general title but with the 1603 title preserved and a copy without separate title in the library of the Royal Society of Medicine. Unlike the copy Franklin used for his facsimile, the present copy (like the Norman copy and the copy in the Royal College of Surgeons) does not bear the words Superiorum Permissu at the end of the text on p. 22. Since this license note does appear, in the same position, in the other four treatises published by Fabricius in 1603 and 1604, it is reasonable to suppose that copies without the license are earlier than those with it. AE/RBH list only 6 copies since 1950. "The first and foremost medium through which the influence of Padua on Harvey becomes palpable is the personality and teaching of the anatomical luminary of the school, Hieronymous Fabricius of Aquapendente (1537-1619). It was in 1603 that he published his treatise on the venous valves. He must have been occupied with it at the vey time when Harvey sat at his feet, namely between 1600 and 1602. It was a consideration of the arrangement of the venous valves in relation to the heart which, as Harvey told Boyle, touched off the spark of his discovery. The venous valves had been described before Fabricius, but the latter gave the first comprehensive anatomical account. He missed, however, the main point their true function which is bound up with the centripetal direction of the venous blood flow. Fabricius remained an advocate of the Galenic assumption of its centrifugal direction, from the heart towards the periphery and the viscera. To have raised Harvey s criticism would, then, constitute Fabricius main influence, as it also did with regard to essential questions concerning the generation of animals. It must be remembered, however, that Fabricius, the greatest pupil of the great Falloppio, the man who founded the celebrated Paduan Anatomical Theatre and School, could not have failed to direct his pupil s interest into the proper channels of dynamic anatomy and to the very foci of his lifelong endeavor the blood vessels on the one hand and the generation of animals on the other. For it is to both of these fields that much of Fabricius work has been devoted. In it the Aristotelian lead and especially the spirit of comparative anatomical enquiry is just as recognizable in Harvey s work. Indeed, the latter nominated Aristotle and Fabricius as his "leaders" (Pagel, pp. 19-20). "[De venarum ostiolis], published in Padua, consists of twenty-three folio pages, supplemented by eight beautiful plates. In it Fabrici reports that he. Seller Inventory # 3909

Bibliographic Details

Title: De venarum ostiolis

Publisher: Lorenzo Pasquati, Padua

Publication Date: 1603

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: First edition.