In 4° (290 x 210 mm); frontispiece portrait of the author within an oval, drawn by Cattaneo and engraved by Anderloni. Title page, one blank page, preface 11 pages, 278 pages, one errata page, at the end, three copperplate etchings by F. Anderloni, including the famous plate with the dissected skull. Contemporary half-leather and marbled cardboard covers, gold title on a red label on the spine. First edition of the famous ophthalmology work by Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832), professor of human anatomy at the University of Pavia; this very important treatise, first published in 1801, earned the author the title of "father of Italian ophthalmology." In it, the author reports his observations on various ocular diseases, providing information on ocular vessels, ocular cysts, corneal ulcers, staphyloma, and cataracts. The causes, development, and treatment of tumors and lacrimal fistulas are also described. Iridodialysis is also described for the first time. The three plates at the end of the volume illustrate some anatomical sections of the eye and the instruments used by the author in his surgical procedures. They are copper engravings by Fausto Anderloni based on drawings by the author. The treatise was reprinted many times, including in other languages, and was long considered the classic text on ophthalmology during the early decades of the 19th century. Antonio Scarpa (Motta di Livenza 1752 – Pavia 1832), professor of anatomy at the University of Pavia, was a disciple of Morgagni, a friend of Volta and Spallanzani, and a member of the major European scientific academies (Paris, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Edinburgh, and Ireland). He made valuable contributions to comparative anatomy, studying the cerebrospinal nerves, the ganglion system, nerve plexuses, osteogenesis, hernias, cardiac innervation, and more. He also made important observations on the organs of hearing, vision, and smell; he also achieved significant results in the surgical and pathological anatomy of bones and arteries. Various anatomical structures bear his name. He was a consulting surgeon to Napoleon and assisted in several births of Amalia Augusta of Bavaria, wife of Eugene de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy. Scarpa's scientific production in the field of anatomy enjoys authority and esteem; he was a very fine observer, also skilled in the use of the microscope. His discoveries on the structure of the ear were important (he described the bony labyrinth and the membranous labyrinth with the endolymph, the semicircular membranous ducts, the saccule, the utricle) and on the peripheral nervous system (with the description of the acoustic nerve and the olfactory nerve). Continuing the work begun in Modena, he published his Anatomicarum annotationum. Liber secundus: De organo olfactus praecipuo, deque nervis nasalibus interioribus e pari quinto nervorum cerebri in Pavia in 1785; three years later he had his essay De nervo spinali ad octavum cerebri accessoire commentarius printed in the proceedings of the Accademia Josephina (1788, vol. 1, pp. 337-361). A fine copy with good margins, slight traces of oxidation on chapters XIII and XIV. Sporadic foxing. Slight traces of use on the edges and plates. Ownership stamp on the front flyleaf. Garrison-Morton (no. 5835): This beautifully illustrated work was the first textbook on the subject to be published in the Italian language. Its author has been called The Father of Italian ophthalmology.