Forceps and Concealed Blade Instruments, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XV, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, from the Chirurgie plates of the Encyclopédie, showing seven numbered figures. Fig. 1 is a pair of forceps with long looped arms and hooked ends crossing at a box joint; Fig. 2 is one arm of a similar instrument shown separately. Fig. 3 is a long, flat band in a gentle S curve. Fig. 4 is a slender shaft with a pear shaped sheath and a trefoil handle, a dotted outline marking the sweep of a blade around the sheath and another the outline of a handle. Fig. 5 is the same pear shaped head with an oval window open and a pointed blade standing out below it. Fig. 6 is a narrow two part instrument with a coiled finger ring. Fig. 7, across the foot of the plate, is a broad lance shaped blade on a straight shaft ending in a trefoil handle.

The plate number is lettered "Pl. XV." at the top right, the section "Chirurgie." is lettered below the border, and the page number "78." stands 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 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.

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