John Browne (1642–1702/3) was a surgeon and anatomist, and was Surgeon-in-Ordinary to Charles II, James II & VII and William III. He was the first person to document cirrhosis of the liver, but many of his other publications were plagiarised. This is a first edition of his treatise on human musculature, published in 1681. By 1683, it had been established that Browne had copied the text word-for-word from a lesser-known work, William Molins's Muskotomia and had taken the plates from the 1632 Frankfurt edition of Giulio Casserius' Tabula anatomicae. This did not stop the book being popular, it went through 10 editions and remained influential into the eighteenth century.

Binding information 

Contemporary red goatskin binding, with gold-tooling to both boards and spine.

Identical ‘panel’ design on both sides: outer double fillet border; inner ‘panel’ formed of one single and one double fillet border and an inner roll border of flower-heads and vines. Outer border of panel surmounted on the sides by four triangular vine tools; outer corners of the panel surmounted by a smaller triangular vine tool and a diamond-shaped tool formed of vines, swirls and flower-heads. In the centre, the arms of William III and Mary II (England, France, Scotland and Ireland quartered on an escutcheon of pretence billetty a lion rampant [Nassau]) surmounted by a crown.

Sides of both boards tooled with a leaf zig-zag roll.

Spine divided into eight compartments by raised bands; each band tooled with a flower-head and vine roll. Second compartment tooled with the title: ‘BRO/WNE/ANAT/OMI’; all other compartments tooled with a diamond-shaped design formed of several individual vine and flower-head tools, surrounded by a double fillet border and swirl tools in each of the corners. Vine and flower-head roll at head and tail of spine.

Contemporary marbled endleaves; all edges gilt.