Dilators and Curved Gouge, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XI, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, showing seven numbered instruments. At the upper right is a long instrument of two parallel blades closed to a narrow point above, swinging apart below into two long curved legs on a central pivot (Fig. 1), and beside it a second instrument drawn open, its arms crossing scissor fashion on a pivot (Fig. 2). Across the lower half lie a two armed instrument pivoted at the middle whose flat strips turn up at the tips (Fig. 3) and two long flat grooved blades with small hooked ends, each carried on a transverse bar set across the shaft like a cross guard (Figs. 4 and 5). At the upper left are a slender, slightly curved flat elevator (Fig. 6) and a hollowed, S curved blade on a fluted, pear shaped handle (Fig. 7).

The plate number "Pl. XI." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." is centered beneath the border, and the page number "72." 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 plate belongs to the Chirurgie section of the Recueil de planches, the volumes of engraved plates that accompanied the Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. It comes from the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert, whose plate volumes appeared between 1771 and 1778. The Chirurgie plates set out surgical instruments, bandages and apparatus and show operations, with the figures numbered and keyed to an explanation printed in the text volume.

The strong vertical forms at the top balance the long horizontals below, a pleasing arrangement to frame.

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