Opened Abdomen and Bladder Dissection, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XIV, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, from the Chirurgie plates of the Encyclopédie. It shows the lower trunk of a body laid on a draped table, the abdominal wall cut open and a large flap turned back. Within, a smooth, rounded, distended bladder fills the opening, with coils of intestine heaped at the right, branching vessels running across the lower part and the cut edges of the tissue forming a rim around the opening. A hand in a gathered cuff at the top holds the flap back, while a second hand at the left holds an instrument with a ring at the grip and pushes its long, slender pointed rod horizontally into the body below the opening, toward the lower side of the bladder. A table with a heavy cloth and a molded leg fills the lower half. There are no figure numbers.

The plate number is lettered "Pl. XIV." at the top right, the section "Chirurgie" is lettered below the border, and the page number "76" stands at the lower left. It is signed at the lower right "Fambrini Fec:".

Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie was accompanied by volumes of engraved plates, the Recueil de planches. The Livorno edition was published by Giuseppe Aubert, with its plate volumes appearing between 1771 and 1778, and this plate comes from its Chirurgie section, which sets out surgical instruments, bandages and apparatus and shows operations, the figures numbered and 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.