18th C. Mezzotints Provide Moral to Rep. Weiner's Twitter Fiasco

by Stephen J. Gertz

If Congressman Anthony Weiner had, at the very least,  used this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Brain of an Unborn Child (1738).

...he would not have caused inflammation and molto agita for all concerned in this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Muscularis mucosae of the intestine (1736).

...by Tweeting this:

LADMIRAL, Jan. Human penis (1741).

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Jan Ladmiral (1698 - 1773) was a pupil and assistant to the great anatomical illustrator Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1670 - 1741). Afterward, Ladmiral, apparently, presumed ownership of Le Blon's secret invention for coloring mezzotint engravings, a process using three different impressions of primary colors (blue, yellow, and red) for one image and thus able to produce different color values without the use of black.

"Ladmiral offered his services in the making of colored anatomical representations to the famous anatomist, Albinus in Leyden. This anatomist put his (Ladmiral's] invention to the test and even permitted him to use two posthumous drawings by Ruysch…" (Choulant and Streeter, History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration, p. 267).

Between 1736 and 1741 Ladmiral created six colored mezzotints of anatomical subjects that made his reputation and remain highly regarded as amongst the finest examples ever produced. Three of those mezzotints are seen here. The initial print in the series, Muscularis mucosae of the intestine, from 1736, is a milestone, the first use of color printing in a medical or scientific book.

Of Ladmiral's colored mezzotint of the human intestine's lining, Albinus wrote:

"It happened that that excellent and industrious painter John Ladmiral came to me and offered his services for making pictures colored after life in a sort of short-hand kind of painting. To see what he could do in this line I have had a picture made which I have added to the dissertation…words fail me to express the incredible variety of twisting of these branches, as the artist had rendered it on the plate" (as  cited by Choulant and Streeter).

And, so, too, words failed Rep. Weiner to adequately express the incredible variety of twisting that ultimately had himself and his libido splayed-out and pinned-down as an anatomical specimen laid bare for public dissection in the media theater.

Recent news, however, suggests interesting possibilities. The Congressman is seeking professional help. His problem is generally considered to be intractable and unresponsive to treatment, so it appears that he is in the vanguard for a new modality, one that heralds a golden age in psychotherapy and the potential for a hit reality-TV show that, with an endless supply of qualified participants, promises to run forever: Rehab For Putzes, the Yiddish epithet appropriate whether used in its strict or casual sense.

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LADMIRAL, Jan and Frederik RUYSCH. Icon Durae Matris in concave Superfice visae, ex capite foetus humani… Leiden: Dirk Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1738. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 108. Lilly 101. Wellcome II, p. 428.

[LADMIRAL, Jan]. ALBINI, Bernardi Siegfried. Dissertatio de arteriis et venis intestinorum hominis. Leiden: Dirk Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1736. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 3. Lilly 101. Wellcome I, p. 26.

LADMIRAL, Jan. Effigies penis humani. Leiden: Cornelis Haak; Amsterdam: Jacob Graal and Hendrik de Leth, 1741. Quarto. Franklin, Color Printing pp. 41-42. Lanwehr, Color Plates 109. Lilly 101. Wellcome II, p. 428.

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Mezzotint images courtesy of Asher Rare Books/Antiquariat Forum. Title pages courtesy of University of Iowa Digital Library. Our thanks to both.

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View Ladmiral's other three extraordinary anatomical mezzotints here.
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The Rarest, Most Beautiful Atlas of Obstetrics

by Stephen J. Gertz

One of six plates from:
Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes
London:  1757.

A copy of the first edition of the scarcest obstetrical atlas yet produced, and certainly one of the most beautiful, featuring six magnificent life-size plates by Jan van Rymsdyk for Charles Nicholas Jenty, has come to market. There are no copies recorded in COPAC, and OCLC notes only one copy in North America, at University of Texas. 

"Superb life-size mezzotints " (Garrison & Morton) are what make Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes (1757) so attractive, in spite of their graphic nature.

"The six beautiful plates of pregnancy and parturation made by Riemsdijk for Charles Nicolas Jenty (1757), of London, are rare examples of mezzotint, which was seldom used in medical illustration" (Garrison).

The first plate was actually drawn by Thomas Burgess and the remainder by Rymsdyk. The mezzotint engraving was done by Thomas Burgess (2), Edward Fisher (1), and Richard Purcell (3). Jenty chose mezzotinting because "this method is softer, and capable of exhibiting a nearer imitation of Nature."

"Charles Nicholas Jenty was an elusive eighteenth century character about whom little is known apart from his writings, and even these are rare. They seldom come on the book market, and few medical libraries possess copies. Not fully appreciated because of their rarity, they are outstanding examples of the arts of the craftsmen, and have also ensured that Jenty's name has not been completely forgotten" (Thornton, Jan van Rymsdyk Medical Artist of the Eighteenth Century).

Another plate from:
Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes.
London:  1757.

Jan van Rymsdyk is generally known as the illustrator of obstetrician  William Smellie's Sett of Anatomical Tables (1754), and anatomist William Hunter's Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus (1774), all of which were drawn about the same time but in the case of Hunter not published until much later. 

So rare is Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes that, with few exceptions, this work remains unnoticed by websites discussing Rymsdyk; it seems to be completely unknown to all  except dedicated scholars.

In 1758 Jenty issued an octavo volume with sixteen pages of text to accompany this atlas, under the  title, The Demonstrations of a Pregnant Uterus of a Woman at her Full Term. Both the atlas and the text are extremely rare, and absent from almost all medical libraries.

A German edition was issued in 1761 at Nuremberg, with the plates re-engraved, under the title, Demonstratio vteri praegnantis mulieris cum foetu ad partum maturi.

The two plates from Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes that illustrate this post make their debut on the Internet via Booktryst. They will likely be the only digital reproductions  of any of the six mezzotints for some time to come; the atlas is that scarce.

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JENTY, Charles Nicholas. Uteri praegnantis & ad partum maturi demonstrationes.  London: [For the Author], 1757. Broadsheet (600 x 465 mm) comprised of six mezzotint engraved plates.

Garrison & Morton 6156.4. Russell 479. Waller 5152. Blocker, p. 211.
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Images courtesy of William Patrick Watson Antiquarian Books,  who is offering the book, with our thanks.
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Health Care Reform in 1655 - Surgical Ward

by Stephen J. Gertz

SCULTET, Jean (Johannes Scultetes). L'Arcenal de Chirurgie.
A Lion: Aux despens du traducteur, 1672.
First edition in French

We think we have health care problems. People in the mid-Seventeenth century actually paid for the medical and surgical procedures below out of their own pocket, performed with pictured instruments into their own flesh.

The doctor is in. Run for your life!

Method for reducing dislocations.
Leg Splint.
Bracing for the arm.

Apparatus for reducing dislocations.

Apparatus for reducing dislocations.

The imagery here is from Armamentarium Chirurgicum by Johannes Scultetes, the most influential and widely read illustrated surgical treatise of the seventeenth century.

Method for reducing a dislocated arm.

The Armamentarium... provides the best record of 17th-century surgical practice, illustrating such procedures as amputation of the breast, reduction of dislocations, forceps delivery, anal-rectal  procedures, neurosurgery, etc.

Urological and anal-rectal procedure.

Urological and gynecological procedures.

"One of the great illustrators of surgery and surgical instruments" (Garrison and Morton).
 
"It is the work of the most comprehensive description of the instruments, organizations and equipment of that era, and at the same time contains many interesting observations, the testimony of this enterprising surgeon. Boldness and skill" (Hirsch-H. V, 299)

How to expand head wounds into a triangle,
to pierce the skull,  and bandaged head.

John Scultetus (1595 -  1645) was one of the first academically trained physicians and surgeons in Germany in the 17th century, who, after his studies at the University of Padua under  Fabricius ab Aquapendente,  worked from 1625 until his death as Stadtphysicus (City Doctor, i.e. chief medical examiner), in Ulm, responsible for the general health of the population, and overseeing hygienic conditions in the city and medical personnel, including  barber/surgeons (shave and haircut, two bits. Amputations, 5) and midwives. He was also the city coroner, performing autopsies, which greatly enhanced and improved his understanding of anatomy and pathology.

Instruments and methods for treating various diseases

The Armamentarium... was published ten years after his death by his nephew, Scultetus the Younger. The work includes a complete catalog of all known surgical instruments of the day, and bandaging and splinting methods. The  procedures  are illustrated in graphic detail by forty-three plates which were never again published in their original folio size, all subsequent editions and translations in quarto.

This was the state of the art of surgery.

If the instruments seem to have been lifted from David Cronenberg's  Dead Ringers and the procedures from Dr. Mengele's medical malefactory they would nonetheless be an improvement over practices and procedures from just a short time before.

Now, thankfully, surgery has made great strides. Non-invasive procedures are increasing in number and performance. 

But few can afford them. Things haven't changed much.

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SCULTETES, Johannes (1595-1645). Cheiroplotheke, seu armamentarium chirurgicum. Ulm: Balthasar Khnen, 1655. Folio. Title printed in red and black with printer's woodcut vignette, text in double column, errata statement on last leaf. 43 numbered engraved plates, woodcut tail-pieces and initials. First edition.

BM/STC 17th century S1741. Garrison-Morton 5571. Heirs of Hippocrates 466. NLM/Krivatsy 10746. Zimmerman & Veith, Great Ideas in the History of Surgery, pp. 249-53.
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