A Comparative Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body, with that of a Tiger and the Common Fowl. [Parts II & III]
Stubbs, George (1724 - 1806)
London. Printed for the author by W. & C. Spilsbury & J. Nichols & Son. 1803–1806
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First edition of Stubbs' rare, late and unfinished comparative anatomical work, uncut in the original wrappers and from the collection of Stubbs' patron Thomas Villiers, 2nd Earl of Clarendon.
Commenced when Stubbs had already passed the age of 70, the dissections, drawings and engravings for the 'Comparative Anatomy' represented the concentrated effort of the last ten years of his life. Subscription proposals for this new work were issued in 1802, the Royal Academy subscribed on July 17th, and between 1803 and 1806 it was published in three separate numbers. At the time of Stubbs's death in 1806, he had produced 125 drawings, and 30 plates out of the 60 originally proposed. Of the 30 engravings, 18 (nine pairs) were of the human body, six of the fowl, and six of the tiger. Present here are twelve plates (six pairs) of the human figure, four of the tiger and four of the fowl (two pairs for each).
The first group of plates, with their accompanying key-plates, compared the skeletons of the man, the tiger and the fowl, while the second and third groups provided a similar comparison of their external form and muscular structure (and it is these second and third parts that are present here). Three further numbers were to have depicted the systematic removal of further layers of muscle, but Stubbs died before the plates could be engraved.
Stubbs' last work is necessarily rare and no complete copies have been offered for sale in the last thirty years; the work is also rare in institutional terms with no complete copies recorded apparently in the British Library, the Library of Congress or other institutions. COPAC lists a copy at the Natural History Museum (although the description fails to clarify whether or not it is complete), a copy of the Orme reprint of 1817 at the British Library and an incomplete copy (part I only) at the Wellcome Library; WorldCat adds copies at Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, however other holdings seem confined to a copy of the Orme reprint at the Winterthur Museum Library, with no other copies listed in libraries in Europe or North America.
'I had indeed hoped to have finished my Comparative Anatomy eer I went, for other things I have no anxiety.' (Stubbs final words as reported by Mary Spencer).
'The Second Number is a View of the External Parts of the Human Body, and an enumeration of the parts lying under them; with a description of the common integuments. The Third Number has the Common Integuments taken off, with the Membrana Adiposa and Fat.' (Stubbs writing in the subscription notice for the publication).
'In this vast and ambitious work he pursued further than any previous anatomist the idea that seemingly disparate creatures were connected by fundamental physical similarities.' (Malcolm Warner, Stubbs and the Horse, 2004).
[See George Stubbs, The Complete Engraved Works - by Christopher Lennox-Boyd, Rob Dixon & Tim Clayton: Nos. 199 - 218].
Commenced when Stubbs had already passed the age of 70, the dissections, drawings and engravings for the 'Comparative Anatomy' represented the concentrated effort of the last ten years of his life. Subscription proposals for this new work were issued in 1802, the Royal Academy subscribed on July 17th, and between 1803 and 1806 it was published in three separate numbers. At the time of Stubbs's death in 1806, he had produced 125 drawings, and 30 plates out of the 60 originally proposed. Of the 30 engravings, 18 (nine pairs) were of the human body, six of the fowl, and six of the tiger. Present here are twelve plates (six pairs) of the human figure, four of the tiger and four of the fowl (two pairs for each).
The first group of plates, with their accompanying key-plates, compared the skeletons of the man, the tiger and the fowl, while the second and third groups provided a similar comparison of their external form and muscular structure (and it is these second and third parts that are present here). Three further numbers were to have depicted the systematic removal of further layers of muscle, but Stubbs died before the plates could be engraved.
Stubbs' last work is necessarily rare and no complete copies have been offered for sale in the last thirty years; the work is also rare in institutional terms with no complete copies recorded apparently in the British Library, the Library of Congress or other institutions. COPAC lists a copy at the Natural History Museum (although the description fails to clarify whether or not it is complete), a copy of the Orme reprint of 1817 at the British Library and an incomplete copy (part I only) at the Wellcome Library; WorldCat adds copies at Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, however other holdings seem confined to a copy of the Orme reprint at the Winterthur Museum Library, with no other copies listed in libraries in Europe or North America.
'I had indeed hoped to have finished my Comparative Anatomy eer I went, for other things I have no anxiety.' (Stubbs final words as reported by Mary Spencer).
'The Second Number is a View of the External Parts of the Human Body, and an enumeration of the parts lying under them; with a description of the common integuments. The Third Number has the Common Integuments taken off, with the Membrana Adiposa and Fat.' (Stubbs writing in the subscription notice for the publication).
'In this vast and ambitious work he pursued further than any previous anatomist the idea that seemingly disparate creatures were connected by fundamental physical similarities.' (Malcolm Warner, Stubbs and the Horse, 2004).
[See George Stubbs, The Complete Engraved Works - by Christopher Lennox-Boyd, Rob Dixon & Tim Clayton: Nos. 199 - 218].
Large folio. (685 x 520 mm). 20 stipple engraved, etched or stipple and soft-ground etched plates by and after Stubbs' drawings, without signature or address, plates numbered VI - XV (including plate XI numbered II as issued) and each accompanied by corresponding key plate bound en face, on thick white or cream paper, uncut and retaining deckle edges. Sheets watermarked: 'EDMEADS & PINE 1804', 'J WHATMAN 1801' or 'J WHATMAN 1794'. Sheet size: c.685 x 515 mm. Original blue paper wrappers backed with white paper.
#39386
