Icones Embryonum Humanorum

Frankfurt: Varrentrapp & Wenner, 1799. Hardcover. Good. Elephant Folio - over 15 - 23" tall. Large folio. [63.5 x 43.5 cm], title with engraved vignette, 2 full-page engravings with 20 illustrations, 10 pp. Bound in contemporary publishers boards with original printed label on front cover. Covers soiled. Large uncut copy. Rare first edition of Soemmering's masterpiece and "one of the best illustrated" (Garrison & Morton) of his works, Icones Embryonum Humanorum served to awaken renewed interest in embryology and was followed by the researches of Michel, Burdach, Tiedemann, Carus, etc.The work "had been planned as an appendix to William Hunter's Anatomia uteri humani gravidi and therefore presents the illustrations, there missing, of a succession of the embryos in the earlier period of pregnancy and the embryo with its coverings in the later period... This ranks among the most valuable works of Soemmerring and is even today useful and highly appreciated. Both the drawing and the engraving show admirable execution" (Choulant).Soemmering (1755-1830), physician, anatomist and professor of medicine, is best known for his series of incomparable anatomical illustrations. * Garrison-Morton 473; Heirs of Hippocrates 704; Choulant, Anatomic Illustration, p. 307.