Dissection of the Male Perineum, Diderot Chirurgie Second Plate XIII, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, from the Chirurgie plates of the Encyclopédie. It shows the perineum of a male figure lying on his back on a draped table, the thighs raised and spread apart and the bare abdomen, with its navel, framed by drapery above. The skin of the region has been opened and turned back in two curved flaps, exposing the banded layers of muscle beneath, and the genital and perineal structures are dissected out along the midline. A hand in a gathered cuff enters from the lower left with the index finger placed in an opening at the lower end of the dissection. There are no figure numbers; the plate is a single study, with the square leg of the table in the lower half.

The plate number is lettered "Seconde Pl XIII" at the top right, marking a second plate carrying the number XIII. The section "Chirurgie." is lettered below the border and the page number "75." stands at the lower left. No engraver's mark is lettered at the lower right.

The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert came with volumes of engraved plates, the Recueil de planches, and this sheet comes from the Chirurgie section of the Livorno edition published by Giuseppe Aubert, whose plate volumes appeared between 1771 and 1778. In this section the instruments, bandages and apparatus of surgery are set out and operations are shown, with numbered figures keyed to an explanation printed in the text volume.

The plate mark is visible around the image. A clinical subject best suited to a medical library or a collection of anatomical prints.

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