Loop Forceps, Cross Frame and Dissection, Diderot Chirurgie Plate VI, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, in seven numbered figures. At the right is a forceps with ring handles whose long springy arms curve out into a wide oval loop open at the top (Fig. 1). At the top center is an upright wooden cross with pierced straps at its head and right arm, a pierced slat and threads hanging from its left arm, and a long tape through its foot (Fig. 2), and at the top left a cord looped into a figure of eight (Fig. 3). Below are scissors with one broad curved blade (Fig. 4) and two long handled instruments, each with a narrow blade along the handle and a curved spring arm, the second with a large ribbed disc (Fig. 5). At the lower left is a flat strap with a pierced head (Fig. 7). The lower right is a dissection: a sheath of tissue opened lengthwise around a large smooth ovoid body, with fine vessels beneath it and a band encircling a smaller rounded body at the base (Fig. 6).

The plate number "Pl. VI." is lettered at the top right outside the border, the section title "Chirurgie." is centered beneath the border, and the page number "67." 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.

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