Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery Book

We owe a great debt to Jean Baptiste Marc Bourgery (1797-1849) and Nicolas Henri Jacob (1782-1871) for their Atlas of Anatomy, which was not only a massive event in medical history, but also remains one of the most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated anatomical treatises ever published in any language. Bourgery began work on his magnificent atlas in 1829 to accompany the text volumes that had begun publication in 1831, and the eightvolume collection was finally completed in 1854, five years after his death. The four parts of Bourgery's treatise cover descriptive anatomy, surgical anatomy and techniques (covering in detail nearly all the major operations that were performed during the first half of the 19th century), embryology, comparative anatomy, and microscopic anatomy. The spectacular hand-coloured lithographs were created by N. H. Jacob, a pupil of the French painter Jacques-Louis David, and most of the lifesize images are remarkable for their clarity, colour, and aesthetic appeal, reflecting a combination of direct laboratory observation and illustrative research; the images are to this day unsurpassed in anatomical illustration. This reprint includes the complete colour plates — 726 in total — and will finally allow not only those in the medical field but also artists, students, and anyone interested in the study of the human body and history of art and printing to appreciate this important work.

Jean-Marie Le Minor qualified as a doctor of medicine (MD) in Paris in 1989, having already gained a PhD in Paris in 1987. He has been assistant professor of anatomy at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg since 1990, radiologist at the University Hospitals in Strasbourg, member of the governing board of the Société Française d'Histoire de la Médecine, Laureate of the Académie Nationale de Médecine (Paris, 2003), and officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (French Ministry of Culture). He is also the author of several historical books, including Histoire des sciences morphologiques médicales à Strasbourg du XVe au XXe siècle (2002) and numerous articles on science and history.

Henri Sick qualified as a doctor of medicine (MD) in Strasbourg in 1963. He was professor of anatomy at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg from 1972 to 2003 and director of the Institute of Normal Anatomy from 1994 to 2003. He is an officer of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (French Ministry of Education) and the author of several books on sectional anatomy, including Atlas of sectional human anatomy (1982), Imaging anatomy of the knee region (1988), and Atlas of slices of the temporal bone and adjacent region (1988), as well as numerous scientific articles.