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Historical Bibliography Updated: June 17, 2026

Discours sur l’anatomie du cerveau.

Publication Details

Paris: Robert de Ninville, 1669 CE.

In this remarkably prescient argument for, and critique of, anatomical research into brain function Stensen opposed Descartes (No. 574) arguing that it was idle to speculate about cerebral function when so little was known about the anatomical structure of the brain. Stensen proved anatomically that the pineal gland was not the seat of the soul. Latin translation, Leiden, 1671. Reprinted in Winslow (No. 394), and translated in that work. Modern English translation, Copenhagen, 1950. Digital facsimile of the 1669 edition from BnF Gallica at this link.

Catalog MetadataReference Information
Entry Number#1378.1
Permanent Linkhttps://hom-sveltekit.fly.dev/entry/1783
Author Bio LinkWikipedia ↗
External URLdiscours-sur-lanatomie-du-cerveau

Geographic Context

Publication place: Paris

Mentioned in annotation: Copenhagen; Leiden