Breast Conditions and Treatment, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XXVIII, circa 1772

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, with six numbered figures, here lettered in lower case as fig. 1 to fig. 6. Fig. 1 is a pointed shaft with a flat disc guard and a cleft head. Fig. 2 is a long twisted cord laid in a spiral, ending in a tufted bulb. Fig. 3, fig. 4 and fig. 5 are female torsos drawn clinically, each with drapery at the waist: fig. 3 shows a large raised mass with an open surface on one breast, fig. 4 a straight incision on one breast, and fig. 5 one breast greatly enlarged. Fig. 6 is a young woman shown to the waist, with drapery, and a round dressing secured over one breast.

The plate number "Pl. XXVIII." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." below the border, and the page number "91" at the lower left. It is signed at the lower right with the conjoined AB monogram followed by "s.", the mark the Venetian engraver Antonio Baratti used on the Livorno plates (his full signature, "Antonio Baratti s.", is lettered on Pl. XII of this section).

The plate belongs to the Chirurgie section of the Recueil de planches, the plate volumes of the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, in the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert between 1771 and 1778. Its figures are numbered and keyed to an explanation printed in the text volume.

The clear line work and open layout read well on a wall, alone or hung with other plates from the same section.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.