Skip to content
Skip to main content
University of Iowa

University Libraries

Oct 13 2016

Vieussens, Neurographia Universalis | October 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room

Posted bySarah AndrewsPosted inCombo

brain_transverse_section_of_cerebral_hemisphere__wellcome_l0002346

RAYMOND VIEUSSENS (1641-1715?). Neurographia universalis. Lyons: Apud Joannem Certe, 1685

picture of Raymond Vieussens

The son of a French army officer, Vieussens provided his own support, studying philosophy at Rhodez and medicine at Montpellier. As physician to the hospital of Saint Eloy in Montpellier,performed over five hundred postmortem examinations.  He made a number of anatomical discoveries during these exams.

This well-illustrated compendium of the anatomy of the nervous system is based on these examinations and provides the most complete description of the brain and spinal cord to appear during the seventeenth century.

Vieussens was one of the first anatomists to dissect out the internal capsule, corona radiata, cerebral peduncles, and the pyramidal fasiculi of the pons. The twenty-two folding copperplates, printed on fine, thin paper, are in excellent condition in this copy.

brain_transverse_section_of_cerebral_hemisphere__wellcome_l0002346You may view this book in the John Martin Rare Book Room, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.  Make a gift to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences by donating online or setting up a recurring gift with The University of Iowa Foundation.