Myographia Nova

963J John Browne 1642-1700?

Myographia nova: or, a graphical description of all the muscles in the humane body, as they arise in dissection: distributed into six lectures. At the Entrance into which, Are Demonstrated the proper Muscles belonging to each Lecture, now in General Use at the Theatre in Chirurgeons-Hall, London, and illustrated with two and forty copper-plates accurately Engraven after the Life, not only with their Names, but their Uses, fairly delineated on each Plate, as much as can be exprest by Figures; with an Explanation of their Names throughout the whole Discourse: As also their Originations, Insertions, and Uses, at large, in their proper Descriptions, and various useful Annotations, and curious Observations both of the Author’s, and other Modern Anatomists. Together with a Phoilosophical and Mathematical Account of the mechanism of muscular motion, and an Accurate and Concise discourse of the heart and its Use, with the circulation of the blood, etc. and with a compleat Account of the Arteries and Veins, as to their outward Coats, proving them to be made with Circular Fleshy Fibres, by whose Contractions their Trunks become Narrowed, and the Fluid Particles of the Blood are sent forwards into all the Parts of the Body. Digested into this New Method, by the Care and Study of John Browne, Sworn Chirurgeon in Ordinary to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, and late Senior Chirurgeon of St. Thomas’s Hospital, Southwark.

London: sold by Thomas Shelmerdine, at the Rose-Tree in Little-Britain, 1705.         Price $3,300

Folio 31 Signatures [π]5, (a)2 (b)4 t8 (t)2 B-C2, (d)1,D-Z2 Aa-Tt2, Uu1Xx-Zz2 Aaa-Bbb2 (complete [Hh with repair]. In addition to the preceding collation, text complete with 41 (of 41) plates including the portrait frontispiece and 2 un-numbered plates. Includes dedications to William III and Earl of Sunderland, printing privilege, preface, 8 letters and poems of commendation list of subscribers and a Treatise on Muscular Dissection by Dr Bernard Connor at beginning. Richard Lower’s appendix of the heart occupies pp. 177/183. On pp. 171/176 is a tract by John Bernoulli “Mathematical disquisitions concerning muscular motion communicated in the Lypswick transactions” with its own plate” –Third edition.( stated as ‘The second edition, with additions.’) This is in good internal condition throughout with some wear, stained. Modern calf-backed marbled boards by D&D Galeries.

First published in 1681 under title: A compleat treatise of the muscles. The description of the muscles is based on William Molins’ Myskotomia, and the plates partly on Guilio Casserio’s Tabula anatomicae. According to Lowndes, the copies of this work that contain Browne’s portrait are printed on large paper.

“Browne was a well-educated man, and likely a good surgeon, as he was certainly a well-trained anatomist according to the standard of the day. […] His treatise on the muscles consists of six lectures, illustrated by elaborate copper-plates, of which the engraving is better than the drawing. It is probably the first of such books in which the names of the muscles are printed on the figures. Browne’s portrait, engraved by R. White, is prefixed in different states to each of his books” (DNB).John Browne, physician to King Charles II, James II and William III, came from Norwich and gained surgical experience in London and in the navy, being wounded in the Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-67. About 1675 he was appointed surgeon-in-ordinary to Charles II and surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital in 1683. He published other works on medicine, including the first recorded description of cirrhosis of the liver (1685) and the best surviving account of touching for the king’s evil (1684). His most important contribution was one of the clearest early descriptions of cirrhosis of the liver. Browne was subjected to a scathing attack by James Young (1647/1721) in which the present work was shown to be plagiarized from works of Casserio and William Molins. The nearly 40 anatomical plates were, with few exceptions, taken from Lolins’Myekotomia. Browne did not respond to Youngs criticism, but did make extensive changes to his text and issued future editions of the book under the title Myographia nova.”. (Heirs of Hippocrates N° 642 1681 ed.). 

https://datb.cerl.org/estc/N11429