Screw Tourniquets and Eye Studies, Diderot Chirurgie Plate XXII, circa 1772

An original antique copper engraving, uncolored, from the Chirurgie plates of the Encyclopédie. Fig. 1 is a slender knife with a narrow, curved, pointed blade. Figs. 2 and 3 are two screw tourniquets, each a long pierced strap with a shaped pad and a plate pressed down by a threaded screw, the first turned by a winged head and the second by a ring. Fig. 5 shows a tube laid in a groove cut in a flat block, with a rounded swelling hanging below it and a ligature tied in a bow on either side. Fig. 4 shows two eyes, lettered a and b: in a, a curved needle and a long thread are passed through a fleshy growth spreading from the corner of the eye toward the pupil; in b, the growth is tied with the thread and the loose ends trail away.

The plate number is lettered "Pl. XXII." at the top right, the section "Chirurgie." is lettered below the border, and the page number "85." 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 edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert was accompanied by volumes of engraved plates, the Recueil de planches. This plate belongs to the Chirurgie section of 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 plate mark is visible around the image.

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