first edition. "Harvey developed the first fundamentally new theory of generation since antiquity and his work represents a major advance in the study of animal reproduction . . . De generatione animalium covers all aspects of conception and birth; its chapter on parturition was the first original work on the subject by an Englishman"--Norman 1011. Garrison-Morton 467; Keynes 34; Krivatsy 5342; Wing H1091.
john evelyn's copy, in a contemporary binding executed for him, with pressmarks in his hand on the title, note to the binder in the hand of his secretary Richard Hoare on first page of dedication, and with the rarely found contemporary portrait of harvey, believed to have been done from life and originally intended to be included in this edition. See Keynes, The Portraiture of William Harvey (1949), pages 16-18, and The Life of William Harvey, page 334 note, locating 6 copies of the portrait apart from the one offered here (Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of Physicians, British Museum Print Room, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, one in an extra-illustrated copy of Evelyn's Diary at Christ Church College, Oxford, and one at an unspecified location in the U.S.). With the modern bookplates of the Evelyn family library (sale, London, 1 December 1977, lot 713) and The Garden Ltd. (sale, New York, 19 November 1989, lot 115).