De vocis auditusq[ue] organis historia anatomica singulari...

[Ferrara]: [Victorius Baldinus], 1601. FIRST EDITION. Elaborately engraved title, 2 engraved portraits, and 33 engraved anatomical plates. Our copy is one of a few printed with a blank verso M3, a printer's error, considered by researchers to be an earlier issue. It is also bound in the original boards, and due to a probable binder's error, it was bound without 4 congruent text leaves (Q2-3 and B2-3), which are supplied in facsimile. A few insignificant spots, but overall a handsome and elegant copy. The words "Enatomia placem" (?) in contemporary manuscript to top and bottom fore-edges. First edition of the most beautiful and celebrated book published on the ear and throat, with drawings based on Casserius' human and animal dissections. His detailed and accurate studies included a wide range of animals: mammals, birds, amphibians, and insects, all examined in relation to human organs. The plates were executed by the German painter and etcher Joseph Maurer, and are the most accurate in the history of comparative anatomy. "Casserius' plates mark a new epoch in the history of anatomic representation, owing to the correctness of their anatomical drawing, their tasteful arrangement, and the beauty of their technical execution . . . They have become the models for anatomic illustrations in copper, just as the Vesalian representations had been for anatomic woodcuts" (see Choulant-Frank, p. 228).

The work is divided into two separate parts, one on the organs of speech, and the other on hearing. It records the first accurate description of the laryngeal muscles and nerves as well as the first useful account of the nature of sound, with a comparative examination of the mechanism of phonation and the auditory organs in fish.

Casserius (1552-1616) was a pupil and assistant to Fabricus. A successful anatomist and surgeon, he died before succeeding Fabricus to the chair of anatomy at Padua.