PAAW, Pieter.

4to, pp. (xxiv), 270; (ii), 128, fine folding engraved frontispiece (bound after the fourth leaf, as often), 2 folding plates; numerous engraved illustrations in the text, including many half- and full-page, and a portrait of Paaw on the verso of the title. Title printed in red and black, separate title-page to the second part. Contemporary vellum. Short tear at the fold in the frontispiece and one plate, tear across leaf Nn1 neatly repaired without loss, paper slightly browned, the vellum a little marked and soiled, but an excellent copy.

FIRST EDITION of Paaw’s commentary on the books of Hippocrates and Celsus on wounds of the head. The text of the first part is in Greek and Latin, and both parts are richly illustrated with very finely executed engravings, a few of which are repeated, which show the anatomy of the head (including the teeth), and the surgical instruments used. The two folding plates are of the skeletal anatomy of the entire body and of the head. Artistically, the glory of this beautiful book is the folding frontispiece, engraved by Andries Jacobsz Stock after Jacob de Gheyn (1565–1629), which depicts Paaw giving an anatomy lesson in the anatomical theatre at Leiden. The theatre was built at his request, and was the first such theatre in the Netherlands. This plate was also published in Paaw’s book on the anatomy of the bones published in 1615. It is modelled on the title-page of the Fabrica of Vesalius, of whom Paaw was an ardent admirer, editing an edition of the Epitome in 1616. Blas Bruni Celli, Bibliografia Hipocrática, 3234.