MEDICINE - Anatomy - Cowper, William. Anatomia corporum humanorum ab excellentissimis, qui in Europa sunt, artificibus, illustrata. Accedunt nunc primum supplementum ad appendicem latinitate donata. With engraved frontispiece, title vignette and 123 engravings on 118 (3 folded) plates, all old coloured. Utrecht, Nicolaus Muntendam, 1750. large folio (53.5 × 37 cm). [70] vols. Calfskin binding with gilt-stamped spine title and gilt spine (rubbed, capitals with small losses and tears to joints, edges and covers scuffed). Brunet II, 398 - Choulant-Frank 252 f. - Blake 102 - cf. Garrison-Morton 385.1 - Second Latin edition. - New edition of the highly impressive and detailed anatomical plates first published by the Dutch surgeon Govard Bidloo (1649-1713). Bidloo had already published his Anatomia Humani Corporis in Amsterdam in 1685; the illustrations were based on drawings by Gerard de Lairesse (1640-1711). However, sales were apparently very slow and, much to Bidloo's displeasure, Cowper (1666-1709) acquired 300 complete sets of the plates from the publisher. He published these, together with a new text, under a new title and his own name. His own contribution to the pictorial programme consisted solely of 9 further plates on myology, which he had drawn by Henry Cook (1642-1700) and engraved by Michiel van der Gucht (1660-1725). His version, which was first published in Oxford in 1698, is presented here in a later and further expanded version. What makes our copy unique is the very carefully executed colouring, which once again significantly enhances the outstanding quality of the plates and which cannot be found in any other copy on the auction market in the last 50 years. - Light foxing and brown stains in places, small dampstain in upper margin, also affecting 7 plates up to the image area. - Provenance: Bookseller's label Perisse Marsil, Lyon. - Christie's Paris, auction 5324 (2006), lot 13 - Swiss private collection.