Human arterial system (fig. 1); tracheal artery (fig. 2); aorta (fig. 3). Engraving, 1778, after engraving by M. Vandergucht after W. Cowper, 1707.

[London] : [E. Middleton, et al], [1778]

1 print : engraving ; platemark 31.8 x 19.7 cm

Facing artery. The new complete dictionary of arts & sciences by the Revd. Mr. Middleton & others. Bears plate no. : V

Wellcome Collection 36338i

After a plate designed by William Cowper, the anatomist, and engraved by Michael Vandergucht, which was published in James Drake's Anthropologia nova, London 1707, ii, fig. 20. The arterial system by Cowper was reproduced in D. Diderot and J. le R. d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, vol. 18, Paris 1762, pl. 8. The figures of the tracheal artery and the aorta (figs 2-3), seen on either side of the main figure, were also illustrated in the Encyclopédie as figs 3 and 5 in the subsidiary plate to plate 8. See this catalogue, no. 35445. For another example of the Cowper plate appearing in an English encyclopedia, see catalogue no. 36275