Józef Majer, *The Physiology of the Senses* [1857]

Format: 21 cm.

Volume: XIII, 621 pp., ill.

Binding: Period half-leather, with embossing and traces of former gilding on the spine. Natural dulling and scuffing of the leather surface at the joints and edges of the covers.

Józef Majer (1808–1899), a physician and physiologist and professor at Jagiellonian University, was one of the founders of Polish anatomical and physiological terminology, in which he replaced Latinisms with Polish terms. “The Physiology of the Senses” is an early Polish academic lecture on the nervous system and the sense organs—sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch—based on contemporary German and French knowledge.

The book was published in 1857, during the period of Germanization at the University of Kraków; Polish did not return to the lecture halls until the early 1860s. Published simultaneously in Kraków and Warsaw by the related Friedlein bookstores, it reached readers on both sides of the partition borders.

Provenance: On the half-title page and title page, a stamp “Biblioth. Univ. Jagellanicae” with the Jagiellonian coat of arms. On the front endpaper, stamps reading “Bibliotheca Jagellonica – duplicate” and “Dublet Bib. Jag.”, indicating that the copy was legally withdrawn as a duplicate. On the last page, an oval stamp reading “D.S.” belonging to a later owner.

The volume is intact. The first few pages have stains and marks from reading; further on, the paper has darkened evenly, and the text is legible. The binding shows natural signs of age.

An item from the 19th Polish Antiquarian Book Auction.