Curved Catheters and Toothed Forceps, Diderot Chirurgie Plate X, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, with ten numbered instruments arranged in rows. At the top are three metal catheters, each with a flat openwork scrolled head and a small ring, the first only slightly bent at the tip, the second and third curving up in a long bend with an eye near the end (Figs. 1 to 3). Below them are a long curved sound with a whipped shaft and a funnel mouth with a ring (Fig. 4), a short curved cannula with a knobbed stylet (Fig. 5) and a long curved cannula with a scrolled handle and a ring (Fig. 6). The center of the plate holds a forceps crossing at a central screw, its long jaws armed on their inner edges with sharp teeth (Fig. 7), and a long rod with a socket at one end, bent back on itself and bound with thread at two points (Fig. 8). At the foot are two long forceps with ring handles and shallow, scoop shaped jaws (Figs. 9 and 10).

The plate number "Pl. X." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." is centered below the border, and the page number "71." is at the lower left. It is signed at the lower right, just below the border, 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 Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert was accompanied by volumes of engraved plates, the Recueil de planches, and this plate comes from their Chirurgie section in the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert, whose plate volumes appeared between 1771 and 1778. Each numbered figure is keyed to an explanation printed in the text volume, which is not part of the sheet.

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