Cheselden, Osteographia, undated variant (1733), Mouteir’s copy
Osteographia, Or the Anatomy of the Bones. In Fifty0Six Plates. By William Cheselden. Every Bone in the Human Body is here delineated as large as the Life, and again reduced to lesser Scales, in order to shew them united to one another. Likewise the gradual Increase of the Bones, from the first Appearance of Ossification int he Foetus to that of an Adult, their internal Texture, as also the Ligaments of the Joints and a great Variety of Diseased bones are here exhibited. This Work was executed in a Camera Obscura contrived on Purpose by the Author, which renders it more exact and complete than any Thing of the Kind whatever; one View of such Prints shewing more than the fullest and best Description can possibly do.
Printer’s note on different colored paper pasted to bottom of title page reads “These Printes are of the First Impression, being taken off before the Plates were letter’d, which have since been broken to Pieces by Mr. Cheselden’s Order
Folio in 19th century brown marbled boards, with brown corners and spine. Scuffed, chipped and bumped. Recent restorations to joints/hinges. Later end papers. Explanation of Tables laid down on front paste down. Earlier pencil notations indicating 1733 on front paste down. Includes frontis piece of Cheselden dated 1753. Title page being on heavier and later paper than the plates which follow. 56 numbered plates printed on rectos, and a 57th unnumbered plate on the verso of plate 56. Mild toning but mostly bright. Book plate of Docteur Francois Moutier on ffep.
William Cheselden (1688-1752) was surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital. A famous British surgeon, famous for his two texts on anatomy as well as his lithotomy.
G-M 395 (the 1733 ed): “This splendidly designed and illustrated work contained full and accurate descriptions of all the human bones, as well as many of animals.”
This copy corresponds to the undated variant mentioned by Russell in The Osteographia of William Cheselden, K. F. Russell, Bull. Hist. Med., 1954, 28, 32-49. This is probably the final issue of the book before the plates were destroyed, but it is true the prints predate lettering of the plates. Thus, this book was compiled from prints that would have been part of the 1733 first edition (which sold poorly and many were broken up by Cheselden himself, and likely recompiled as found in this publication of the plates), plus the addition of a later frontis and title page.
Heirs of Hippocrates 815 supports this view: “Only 300 copies of Osteographia were printed and 203 copies remained after the subscribers received their copies. Cheselden then broke up the sets and offered the plates of the human bones for 30 shillings a set and the plates of comparative osteology for 10 shillings a set. This undated issue with its specially printed title page and complete set of unlettered plates is undoubtedly part of one of the 203 copies that were broken up and sold.”
Francois Mouteir (1881 – 1961), who previously owned this copy, was a French gastroenterologist, poet, and bibliophile.
