BORELLI, GIOVANNI ALFONSO
De Motu Animalium. Pars Prima (Secunda). Editio Altera. Correctior & emendatior.
Lugduni in Batavis, Johannem de Vivie, Cornelium Boutesteyn, Danielem à Gaesbeeck & Petrum vander Aa, 1685. [order of publisher's/printers starting with Vivie follows Krivatsy item 1580]. 4to. 2 vols. in 1. W. engr. title and 18 engr. pls. (Pls. some righthand marg. foxing). Contemp. full vellum, thong laced, title in ink on spine. (XVI, 280 (With a regular collation to Mm4 the text reaches page 280 & proposition 235, followed by a regular Nn4 , mysteriously, however only containing the "Index Capitum" for the end of Ch. 14 to the end (Ch. 33) plus the errata leaf. Therefore not present but due to a printer's or binder's error apparently never included in the copy the 8 pp. containing last page of text and survey of first 14 Caputa regarding vol. I.) Second volume: IV, 365, XIV (Index) pp.). (Small square cut from title, some loss verso title to imprimatur). Collated against a copy in the University Library Amsterdam [UBA] we found the following discrepancies: both copies are identical up to and including Ll4 (p. 272) and also from Nn1 to the end of part I (6 lvs index and errata). The in between signature Mm in 4 lvs. is erratic. The UBA copy jumps from p. 272 (Ll4) to p. 279/80 (Mm1), containing propos. 224. Our copy has a regular pagination from p. 272 to p. 273 (Mm1) but reverts to Propos. 182 (followed by Caput XIV, propos. 183, 184 and 185. At this point the binder seems to have slipped up and continues NOT WITH CAP. XV, BUT WITH INDEX CAPITUM XV!!! DSB II, 306-314: (Naples, 1608 - Rome 1679). Astronomy, epidemiology, mathematics, physiology, physics. 'And he ...produced two major studies which were not only excercises in pre mechanics but also, in the eyes of Borelli himself, necessary introductions to what he would consider to be his most important work, the "De Motu Anamalium". Respectively these were "De Vi percussionis" (1667) and "De Motionibus naturalibus..." (1670). ...For the last 2 years of his life he taught mathematics at its [fathers of the Casa di S. Pantaleo] Scuole Pie. Apparently he never sent a copy of his manuscript [of "De Motu Animalium"] to Paris. Then in late 1679 Queen Christina agreed to bear the printing costs and Borelli dedicated the De Motu to her. He died in December, however, and his benefactor at the convent, P.Giovanni di Gèsu, accepted the responsibility of seeing the last and most important work through the press. Volume I, treating of external motions, or the motions produced by the muscles, appeared in 1680. Volume II, dealing with internal motions, such as the movements of the muscles themselves, circulation, respiration, the secretion of fluids, and nervous activity, appeared in late 1681.': Norman coll. I, 270 (First edition 1680/1) 'After Descartes Borelli was the principal founder of the iatrophysical school, ...Inspired by Harvey's mathematical demonstration of the circulation of the blood, Borelli ...conceived of the body as a machine whose phenomena could be explained entirely by the laws of physics. Borelli was the first to recognize that bones were levers powered by the action of the muscle, ...[he was ] the first to explain the heartbeat as a simple muscular contraction, and to ascribe its action to nervous stimulation. He was also the first to describe circulation as a simple hydraulic system.': G&M, comp. 762: Dibner, Heralds, comp. 190 (1st ed): Fulton, Hist. of Physiology, pp. 220/22: Hall, Physiology I, 342/48: Eimas, Heirs of Hippocrates, comp. item 496 (1st ed.): 'Pupil of Galileo and teacher of Malpighi, Borelli's lasting fame is his dominating influence in the establishment of the Iatrophysical School of thought, which sought to interpret all physiological phenomena by the laws of mathematics and physics...The illustrations showing human beings and animals in various positions of muscle exertion could only have been conceived by one who was primarily a physicist and not an anatomist.': Comp. Cushing B499: Wellcome II, p. 204 (ed. 1685): Osler, comp. 2087: Krivatsy, 1579 and 1580 (another issue with different sequence of booksellers in impressum. Second edition, 2 vols. in 1.
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Keywords: mechanistic view medicine strongbox? Cartesianism W63