First edition of one of the rare early anatomical works of one of the most important German anatomists, later also known for his introduction of vaccinations against smallpox soon after Jenners 1798 publications on the subject, his work on fossils and sunspots, and his 1809 invention of an electrical telegraph. The present work discusses the anatomy of the human brain and spinal cord, carrying on from the author's doctoral thesis a decade earlier on the neural organization of the brain. It is dedicated to the Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, Elector and Archbishop of Mainz, who had called Soemmerring to Mainz as a professor four years before. A second edition appeared in 1792.
Soemmerring (1755-1830), son of a doctor of the same name, was an anatomist, doctor and wide-ranging researcher. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1778 and was named professor of anatomy and physiology at Mainz in 1784. He was knighted in 1808.
The pomegranate stamped on the title-page could easily be mistaken a printed ornament, but one can see it has been separately stamped and that the impression carried through to the following leaf (though not now aligned, suggesting it was made when the sheets had already been folded and gathered but not yet bound). It may be an owners mark or simply a decoration. In very good condition. The backstrip is slightly damaged, but the binding remains good. August Hirsch, Biogr. Lexikon ... Aerzte (1887), pp. 453-455; cf. VD18 (1792 ed.).