Sources:  The majority of the ebooks are available through UVa Libraries’ partnership with HathiTrust Digital Library, an immense repository of digitized collections, which is searchable through Virgo (UVa’s Library Catalog).  Since many of the books in Vaulted Treasures have multiple editions, you may find more ebooks through Virgo, and we’ll continue adding to the list as more of these historic sources are made available.  We also welcome visitors to experience these treasures in person by visiting Historical Collections.

The Digitization Services unit of Digital Curation Services of the University of Virginia Library scanned many of the books and these feature the “Page Turner” application, which allows you to view, scroll, and zoom on the digitized pages.

A small percentage of the ebooks are available only through licensed databases provided by UVa Libraries; therefore, access is limited to UVa community members (students, faculty and staff) or guests on-site visiting UVa Libraries.  For the UVa community, information about setting up off-Grounds access to these licensed databases is available at Off Grounds Use of Library Resources.

Ebooks in Vaulted Treasures: Historical Medical Books at the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library:

• Hippocrates (460 BCE-ca. 370 BCE): Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis, opera quae apud nos extant omnia. Lugduni: Apud Ant. Vincentium, 1555.Fulltext online

• Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE-50CE):[De medicina libri viii] .Venetiis: Impressor Ioannes Rubeus Vercellensis fuit, die 8 mensis lulii, 1493. Fulltext online

• Pedanius Dioscorides, of Anazarbos (fl.50-70):De materia medica libri sex. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Rouillium, 1554. Fulltext online

• Galen (ca. 130-ca. 200):Claudii Galeni Pergameni De naturalibus facultatibus libri tres. Parisiis: Ex officina Christiani Wecheli, 1537.Fulltext online

• Oribasius (325-403): Oribasii Sardiani Synopseos ad Eustathium filium lib. novem. Parisiis: In officina Audoeni Parvi…, 1554. Fulltext online

• Aëtius, of Amida (502-575): Aetii medici graeci contractae ex veteribvs medicinae Tetrabiblos, hoc est qvaternio, id est libri uniuersales quatuor…. Basileae: Froben, 1542. Fulltext online

• Paulus, Aegineta (625?-690?): Pauli Aeginetae Medici opera…. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Rouillium…, 1589. Fulltext online, 1542

• Albertus Magnus (1193?-1280): De secretis mulierum…. Amstelodami: Apud lodocum lanssonium, 1648. Fulltext online

• Bernard de Gordon (1260-ca. 1318): Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. Parisiis: [Apud Joannem Foucherium], 1542. Fulltext online

• Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564): Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, invictissimi Caroli V. Imperatoris medici, de humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basileae: per Ioannem Oporinum, [1555]. Fulltext online

• Bartolomeo Eustachi (1520?-1574): Tabulae anatomicae clarissimi viri…. Amstelaedami: apud R. & G. Wetstenios, 1722. Fulltext online

• Juan de Valverde (ca. 1525-ca. 1587): La anatomia del corpo umano. Vinetia: nella stamperia Giunti, 1586. Fulltext online

• John Gerard (1545-1612): The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. London: Printed by Adam Islip[,] Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers, 1633. Fulltext online

• England and Wales. Sovereign (1558-1603: Elizabeth I): Orders Thought Meete by Her Maiestie, and Her Priuie Councell, To Be Executed Throughout the Counties of the Realme, in Such Townes, Villages, and Other Places, As Are, Or May Be Hereafter Infected with the Plague…. [London]: Imprinted at London by Christopher Barker, printer to the Queenes Most Excellent Maiestie, [1593?]. Fulltext online

• Santorio Santorio (1561-1636): Medicina statica: Being the Aphorisms of Sanctorius. London: Printed for T. Longman…and J. Newton…, 1737.Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)  and La medicina statica. In Venezia: Appresso Domenico Occhi, 1743. Fulltext online

• William Harvey (1578-1657): Anatomical Exercitations, Concerning the Generation of Living Creatures…. London: Printed by J. Young for O. Pulleyn, 1653. Fulltext available through EEBO: Early English Books Online (UVa access only) and Opera omnia: a Collegio Medicorum Londinensi edita. [Londini: Guilielmus Bowyer], 1766. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Francis Glisson (1597-1677): Francisci Glissonii…Anatomia hepatica…. Amstelodami: Apud Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge, & Elizeum Weyerstraten, 1665. Fulltext online, 1659

• Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680): Thomae Bartholini Anatome ex omnium veterum recentiorumque observationibus…. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex officina Hackiana, 1673. Fulltext online

• Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654): The English Physician: Or, An Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation. London: Printed for the benefit of the Commonwealth of England, 1652. Fulltext available through Early English Books Online (UVa access only) and Culpeper’s English Physician and Complete Herbal…. London: Printed for J. Adlard…for the proprietor and sold at the Encyclopedia Office…and by Champante and Whitrow, 1807-1810. Fulltext online

• Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694): Consultationum medicinalium, centuria prima, quam in gratiam clinicorum evulgat Hieronymus Gaspari…. Patavii: ex Typographia Seminarii, 1713. Fulltext online

• François Mauriceau (1637-1709): The Diseases of Women with Child, and in Child-bed…. London: Printed for A. Bell, 1716. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738): Institutiones medicae…Editionem istam curavit, et auxit Joannes Baptista Soldevilla…. Matriti: Ex typographia Villalpandea, 1796-97. Fulltext online

• Giambattista Morgagni (1682-1771): De sedibus, et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque. Patavii: Sumptibus Remondinianis, 1765. Fulltext online, 1766

• William Cheselden (1688-1752): The Anatomy of the Human Body. London: Printed by W. Bowyer, 1741. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770): Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles of the Human Body. London: Printed by H. Woodfall, for John and Paul Knapton, 1749. 1777 edition available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• William Smellie (1697-1763): A Sett of Anatomical Tables, with Explanations, and an Abridgement, of the Practice of Midwifery. London printed: [s.n.], 1754. Fulltext online and Traité de la theorie et pratique des accouchemens. Paris: Delaguette, 1754-58. Fulltext online

• James Lind (1716-1794): An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates. London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1771. Fulltext online and A Treatise on the Scurvy. London: Printed for S. Crowder [etc.], 1772. Fulltext online

• John Hunter (1728-1793): A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds…. Philadelphia: Published by Thomas Bradford, printer, book-seller & stationer, no. 8, South front-street, 1796. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Michael Underwood (1736-1820): A Treatise on the Diseases of Children, with General Directions for the Management of Infants from Birth …. London: Printed for J. Mathews, 1789. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Benjamin Rush (1746-1813): Medical Inquiries and Observations. Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson, at the Stone-house, no. 41, South second-street, 1794-98. Fulltext online: Volume One, 1794, Volume Two, 1797, Volume Three, 1794, Volume Four, 1796, and Volume Five, 1798 available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

• Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832): Saggio di osservazioni e d’esperienze sulle principali malattie degli occhi. Pavia: Baldassare Comino, 1801. Fulltext online

• Matthew Baillie (1761-1823): The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body…. Albany: Printed by Barber & Southwick, for Thomas Spencer, bookseller, 1795. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

• John Bell (1763-1820): Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints…. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme…and T. Cadell and W. Davies…, 1810. Fulltext online and The Principles of Surgery. New-York: Printed and sold by Collins and Perkins, 1810. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

• Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842):Memoirs of Military Surgery, and Campaigns of the French Armies…. Baltimore: Published by Joseph Cushing, 6, North Howard street, 1814. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

• Charles Bell (1774-1842): The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings. London: T.N. Longman and O. Rees [etc.], 1802. Fulltext online

• René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1825):
  De l’auscultation médiate…. Paris: J.-A. Brosson et J.-S. Chaude, 1819. Fulltext online

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Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Paris: Chez Gabriel Buon, 1585.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. End paper with gold-stamped border.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. In 1925 the owner of this book inscribed his name at the top of the title page which features classical elements including cherubs and crowns.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. An elegant page with illustrated header and historiated initial.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Patient’s muscles are manipulated with pulleys.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Surgical instruments.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Mechanical hands.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Crutches.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Des Monstres.

Ambroise Paré, Les oeuvres d’Ambroise Paré…. Conjoined twins shown in Des Monstres.

Ambroise Paré was a French surgeon who was apprenticed at an early age to a barber and became a barber-surgeon. He spent most of his life as an army surgeon, and he successfully devised innovative military surgical procedures. Paré was the first to notice that the usual practice of treating gunshot wounds with boiling oil was detrimental: instead he tried applying ointment and bandaging the wounds. Rather than cauterizing amputated limbs he used ligation (tying blood vessels). Paré performed many successful experiments and made astute observations about what he saw.

His 26 books, including Des Monstres, a book filled with stories about sea devils and other monsters, were compiled into this large volume, which was translated into several languages, including Latin. That Paré did not know Latin irritated the learned physicians of France, who feared that lowly surgeons untrained in classical languages might become their rivals.

next author: Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564).

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Big or small, plain or fancy, the books and their authors all contribute to the history of medicine. They are reminders that the ideas and knowledge we take for granted in the twenty-first century have evolved over millennia. Physical symptoms in life have not always been directly correlated with physical findings in the body after death, and two centuries ago the now ubiquitous stethoscope so often draped around the physician’s neck did not exist.

Join us on a journey into the vault to view more than 50 of our most notable books and see how their authors over the years have documented their discoveries and concepts for contemporaries and for us.  Or, stay in the twenty-first century and delve into the digitized versions of many of our treasures in the Fulltext Books section, which offers links to the scanned images of over half of these rare books.

Read More [Introduction]

Or Browse Authors :

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Early Printing Spurs Exchange

Johann Gutenberg’s invention of movable type for the printing of books took place in Mainz, Germany around 1450, and printing soon found its way to nearby towns and cities, and then across Europe. Early printers published mainly theological and legal works. But after 1470, scientific and medical books proliferated in many European cities, including Venice, Rome, Paris, Leipzig, Augsburg, Antwerp, Strasburg, Cologne, London, Frankfurt, Ulm, and Lyons. Printers often set up shop near universities or places of learning. A chief characteristic of all major printing centers was a lively mercantile exchange, which could not only provide books for a city’s own inhabitants, but also supplied merchants who could market books and pamphlets to the hinterland. Within 50 years, publishing houses established themselves in more than 120 cities.

First Printed Medical Works from Ancient Texts

The early printed books on medical and scientific topics contained, interestingly, not the most up-to-date knowledge. In fact, no real value was placed on “new” or current information. Something was better if it was old. The first printed medical books were mostly Latin versions of ancient Greek and Islamic texts from Hippocrates (460 BCE-ca. 370 BCE), Galen (ca. 130-ca. 200 CE), Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Avicenna (980-1037), and many others. They included a large number of treatises dating from the fifth or fourth BCE that were attributed to Hippocrates. These works were written by many medical authorities, not just Hippocrates, and had merit on several counts, even centuries after they were composed. The authors tried to build explanations that relied on actual causes rather than on magic. They called for accurate diagnosis and emphasized the importance of managing diet in health and sickness. In addition, the writing contained examples of “deliberate and repetitive scientific observation.”

Aristotle was among the most popular of the ancient Greeks to be printed in the early period. He had insisted on the connection between medicine and philosophy, and his arguments influenced other classical writers, especially as they were transmitted by Galen. The accounts of Galen also describe the anatomical efforts of physicians who were dissecting cadavers of animals in an attempt to understand the structure and workings of the human body. In the first century CE, Dioscorides (fl.50-70) gave expression to a full-blown herbal pharmacology.

Greek and Arabic Texts Translated into Latin

Greek medical works were first translated into Latin in the fifth century, and in the following hundred years, the work of Oribasius (325-403) as well as Galen and Hippocrates had been translated in northern Italy. Soon the work of Dioscorides also became available in Latin. After the Muslim conquests that began in the seventh century, Greek science and philosophy were assimilated into an already vibrant Islamic medical culture. Greek texts were translated into Arabic, sometimes by way of Syriac, and by the ninth century, Arabic-speaking physicians knew ancient Greek medicine and tried to improve upon it. Several important Islamic encyclopedists compiled the work of the ancients, including the Greeks. Among these Islamic writers were Razi (d. 925?), whose work was principally based on clinical experience, and Avicenna, who strove to encapsulate all of the world’s medical knowledge in his tomes. He based most of his writing on the accounts of Galen.

These Greek and Arabic medical works first entered the West during the cultural revival known as the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century,” a burst stimulated by urbanization, and the growth of jobs requiring literacy. This scholarly revival spurred the opening of new schools and enhanced the growth of scientific and medical knowledge. The invention and spread of universities, centers for serious study and discussion of science and philosophy, boosted medical inquiry to new heights. Salerno, in southern Italy, and Montpellier, in France, became important centers for medical study unlike anything known before. Here, in the newly created universities, as well as in monasteries, Greek and Islamic texts were translated into Latin with a fervor.

Advances in Anatomy

During the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries these ancient and medieval medical texts were among the first works to be printed using Gutenberg’s technology. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, an emphasis on careful observation and correct representation pushed the descriptive science of anatomy swiftly forward. Anatomists included what was known from classical times, but added to that knowledge by performing human dissections. In 1543 Vesalius published his exquisitely illustrated volume, De fabrica corporis humani, in which he challenged old dogmas and helped to foster a sense of inquiry.

Innovations in Military Medicine and Surgery

Taking advantage of his experience in military medicine, Ambroise Paré successfully devised innovative surgical procedures and printed his collected works in 1579. Paré trained under a barber-surgeon, but by 1531 the Académie Royale de Chirurgie was established in France, and 14 years later, in England, the Company of Surgeons parted from the barbers, thus putting surgery on a more professional footing. John Hunter, an anatomist and surgeon, helped transform surgery from a manual craft to an experimental science during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Physiology and the Development of the Scientific Method

In the early seventeenth century Santorio cultivated the importance of physiology. His writings indicate the transition taking place in medicine as Hippocratic and Galenic theories were seriously questioned. Part of the Iatrophysical School that emphasized the use of math and physics to gain an understanding of physiological processes, Santorio published the first systematic study of basal metabolism in 1614. William Harvey printed his treatise on the circulation of the blood in 1628. Considered by many to have made the most significant finding in the history of medicine, Harvey is to physiology what Vesalius is to anatomy. In addition to his remarkable discovery, Harvey’s work also made a huge contribution as an example of the scientific method.

Progress in Pathology

As early as the second century, Galen had recognized that a patient’s symptoms and physical findings sometimes correlated with discoveries made upon examining the patient’s body after death. But it was Giambattista Morgagni, considered the founder of pathological anatomy, who put pathology on a scientific footing. His De sedibus et causis morborum was published in 1761 and contains the well-organized records of nearly 700 autopsies.

Physical Diagnosis: Back to the Beginning

Rene Laennec’s publication of De l’auscultation in 1819 introduced the stethoscope, one of the most significant advances in physical diagnosis. Describing as never before the audible sounds of thoracic diseases, Laennec published his findings on the clinical and pathological aspects of heart and lung diseases. Laennec’s book brings us to the end of the time period of our “Vaulted Treasures.” Interestingly, it also takes us back to the beginning. According to medical historian Jacalyn Duffin, Laennec “interpreted the sounds and he always delighted in pointing out that many predecessors over the centuries, including Hippocrates, had laid their ears on the chests of patients in order to discover what was going on inside.” [Wallis, p 94]

Enter the Exhibit

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De l’auscultation médiate…. Paris: J.-A. Brosson et J.-S. Chaude, 1819. Fulltext online

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec, De l’auscultation médiate….

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec, De l’auscultation médiate…. Drawings of the stethoscope and lungs.

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec, De l’auscultation médiate…. Most of the plates in his book illustrate the diseased lung as do these four images that are consistent with lungs affected by tuberculosis.

René Laennec was the leading French internist of his time. For millennia practitioners had tried to figure out what was going on inside the human body by placing an ear directly on a patient’s chest, in other words, by direct auscultation. Laennec was the first to use medial or indirect auscultation when he, “…rolled a quire of paper into a sort of cylinder and applied one end of it to the region of the heart and the other to my ear.” He was surprised and pleased, “…to find that I could thereby perceive the action of the heart in a manner much more clear and distinct than I had ever been able to do by the immediate application of the ear.” [Laennec 211]

De l’auscultation médiate was initially published in 1819, three years after Laennec first used his roll of paper. The book introduces the stethoscope and describes as never before the audible sounds of thoracic diseases. It is also the result of 18 years of study by Laennec on the clinical aspects and pathological anatomy of diseases of the heart and lungs. Because Laennec heard sounds no one else ever had, he established words such as râles, bronchial breathing, bubbling, metallic tinkle, and egophone. Ironically, one of his best known word creations is cirrhosis and has nothing to do with respiratory diseases.

Laennec experimented with his stethoscope design and fashioned a hollow cylinder of wood about 12 inches long that was divided in the middle so that it could be taken apart and easily conveyed. “This instrument I commonly designate simply the Cylinder, sometimes the Stethoscope.” [Laennec 212] His invention was the most significant advance in physical diagnosis between the introduction of thoracic percussion (tapping a patient’s chest and determining from the resultant sound whether it was healthy or diseased) in 1761 and the discovery of X-rays in 1895.

Laennec’s mother died of tuberculosis when he was only six years old, which may explain his interest in diagnosing diseases of the chest. He himself died of tuberculosis at the age of 45, only six years after his landmark book was first published.

Bibliography and Websites

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Memoirs of Military Surgery, and Campaigns of the French Armies…. Baltimore: Published by Joseph Cushing, 6, North Howard street, 1814. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

Dominique Jean Larrey, Memoirs of Military Surgery, and Campaigns of the French Armies….

Dominique Jean Larrey, Memoirs of Military Surgery, and Campaigns of the French Armies…. Under the heading “First Campaign in Spain” Larrey shows the wide scope of his topics. He gives an account of a bull fight in Burgos, discusses the regulation of medical staff, remarks on Madrid, and writes a memoir on gangrene.

Born in a small village in the Pyrenees, Dominique Jean Larrey was orphaned at 13 and raised by his uncle who was a surgeon. Eventually he became a field doctor and the chief surgeon to Napoleon. Present at more than 60 major battles, Larrey was injured three times and captured once.

Larrey has been called the “greatest military surgeon in history.” [Morton’s Medical Bibliography 341] He realized the importance of quick care and prompt evacuation of the wounded. He instituted triage and first aid on the battlefield itself before the end of the fighting. He created his “flying ambulance,” a light, horse drawn carriage to speedily remove the critically injured to hospitals away from the battle. His care for the injured was given to men on his side, but also to the opposing forces. He improved methods of wound care, promoted early amputation as a treatment for compound fractures, and was one of the first to successfully perform an amputation at the hip joint. Larrey also published classic accounts of trachoma and trench foot.

Larrey wrote several books detailing his time with the army. Mémoires de chirurgie militaire is his most important and was translated into English by Richard Willmott Hall and published in 1814, two years after the first French edition.

Larrey’s Memoirs of Military Surgery is more than a work regarding wartime surgery. It also includes sections about aneurysms, rheumatism, hernias, and numerous segments oncerning nonmedical topics. Larrey describes battles and provides observations of various sites.

next author: Charles Bell (1774-1842).

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An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates. London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1771. Fulltext online

A Treatise on the Scurvy. London: Printed for S. Crowder [etc.], 1772. Fulltext online

James Lind, A Treatise on the Scurvy. The third edition of Lind’s book is A Treatise on the Scurvy. The word “of” in the title was changed to “on” in the second edition.

James Lind, A Treatise on the Scurvy. Lind’s experiments were carefully planned.

James Lind, A Treatise on the Scurvy. Sadly, Lind concluded, “…experience must ever evince the fallacy of all positive assertions in the healing art.”

James Lind, An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates. “…a worm which breeds in the flesh. This is a white, round, slender worm, often some yards long…”

Born in Scotland, James Lind became a surgeon’s apprentice at the age of 15. In 1747, prior to earning a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, Lind conducted his experiments on scurvy, an often deadly disease common to sailors. While citrus fruit was known to be curative and preventative for scurvy prior to Lind, this was by no means the only treatment used. Lind’s controlled clinical trial proved the consumption of citrus fruit was beneficial, whereas other treatments had minimal or no effect. Unfortunately, in spite of Lind’s clear clinical results, it was more than 40 years after the 1753 publication of A Treatise of the Scurvy before the Royal Navy finally issued citrus juices to seamen.

Lind’s well-planned trials provided additions to the otherwise identical diets of six pairs of men with symptoms of scurvy. The men were kept in the same sickbay with the same care. Four pairs showed no improvement, while the pair supplied with a quart of cider each day showed slight improvement. However, the two sailors given a lemon and two oranges daily made astonishing recoveries.

The third edition may clarify why it took the Royal Navy 40 years to provide citrus products to seamen. In spite of carrying out the clinical experiments himself, even Lind apparently failed to grasp the full import of the results. Although he had observed thousands of scorbutic patients, his Postscript in the 1772 edition promotes remedies with “very different and opposite qualities to each other, and to that of lemons.” At the beginning of the same edition he writes, “ … but, though a few partial facts and observations may, for a little, flatter with hopes of greater success, yet more enlarged experience must ever evince the fallacy of all positive assertions in the healing art.”

Considered the founder of naval hygiene in England, Lind also wrote An Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates, first published in 1768. In it he methodically discusses the diseases encountered in various parts of the world and then gives advice for both the avoidance of disease and the “cure of those diseases which attack strangers in warm climates.” This early work on tropical medicine contains a description of the extraction of a Guinea worm from a person by gently drawing it forth over a period of days, a method still used today.

next author: John Hunter (1728-1793).

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Consultationum medicinalium, centuria prima, quam in gratiam clinicorum evulgat Hieronymus Gaspari…. Patavii: ex Typographia Seminarii, 1713. Fulltext online

Marcello Malpighi, Consultationum medicinalium….

Marcello Malpighi, Consultationum medicinalium…. Historiated initial on page dedicated to the book’s benefactor.

Marcello Malpighi, Consultationum medicinalium…. “Melancholia.”

Marcello Malpighi was born in 1628, the year in which William Harvey published his landmark De motu cordis, demonstrating the circulation of the blood. An Italian anatomist who taught at the University of Bologna, Malpighi performed his greatest feat when he observed blood circulating through capillaries and recorded what he saw. Thus he built upon and furthered the work of William Harvey. Malpighi is also known for his description of the structure of the lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen. He wrote the first work comparing livers from snails, fishes, reptiles, other mammals, and humans. He also wrote on the development of the chick. Using a microscope, Malpighi made valuable observations about the structure of plants and animals.

Remembered as a pioneer of microscopic studies on human tissues, Malpighi’s name has been incorporated into the term “rete Malpighi,” used for a deep layer of skin, and the spleenic corpuscles are still called the “Malpighian corpuscles.”

next author: François Mauriceau (1637-1709).

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The Diseases of Women with Child, and in Child-bed…. London: Printed for A. Bell, 1716. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

François Mauriceau, The Diseases of Women with Child…. This is the cover of our edition translated by Chamberlen.

François Mauriceau, The Diseases of Women with Child…. Mauriceau includes this drawing and the corresponding description “Of the Parts of a Woman destin’d to Generation.”

François Mauriceau, The Diseases of Women with Child…. This is another drawing and description concerning “Of the Parts of a Woman destin’d to Generation.”

François Mauriceau, The Diseases of Women with Child…. These illustrate various presentations of the child in the womb.

The Parisian François Mauriceau was a master-surgeon and leading obstetrician of his day. His Traité des maladies des femmes grosses, et de celles qui sont accouchées was initially published in 1668. The book helped establish obstetrics as a distinct specialty and was the first of many editions in several languages. It was translated into English within five years of the original edition by Hugh Chamberlen, whose family had developed and kept a monopoly on the use of obstetrical forceps for several generations. Our earliest copy is the fifth edition translated by Chamberlen.

Mauriceau gives the first written account of how to prevent congenital syphilis by providing prenatal treatment. He is also the first to discuss tubal pregnancies, epidemic puerperal fever, and the dangers present when the umbilical cord slips into the vagina before the unborn baby. He advocates a reclining position in bed rather than sitting on a birthing stool or chair for delivery. This “French Position” permitted the obstetrician to more easily examine the patient and perform procedures. Its use quickly spread in Europe and North America.

Before he discusses the diseases of women, Mauriceau gives an anatomy lesson in the section “Of the Parts of a Woman destin’d to Generation.” He claims that the womb “causeth most Diseases in Women.” Mauriceau was personally well aware of the great danger of pregnancy. His own sister hemorrhaged and died as a result of placenta previa. In a chapter entitled, “Of those Births wherein the Infant presents Belly, Breast, or Side,” he states,

Wherefore the worst and most dangerous Figure that a Child can Offer in the Womb to the Birth, is the Belly or the Breast; for then its Body is constrain’d to bend backwards, And whatever Throws or Endeavours the Woman makes to bring it forth, it will never be accomplish’d; for she will sooner perish with her Child, than ever advance it in this Posture into the Passage: Wherefore it is in great danger, if not timely succour’d.

next author: Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738).

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De sedibus, et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque. Patavii: Sumptibus Remondinianis, 1765. Fulltext online, 1766

Giambattista Morgagni, De sedibus…. This second edition was published in 1765, four years after the first edition.

Giambattista Morgagni, De sedibus…. “Index Secundus.”

Giambattista Morgagni, De sedibus…. Frontispiece.

Giambattista Morgagni or Giovanni Battista Morgagni, an Italian pathologist, teacher, and anatomist, is considered one of the founders of pathological anatomy. The concept of linking a patient’s symptoms and physical findings with discoveries made upon examining the patient’s body after death did not begin with Morgagni. Galen recognized this correlation as early as the second century. However, Morgagni is notable for studying the relationship between clinical signs and postmortem discoveries in a very systematic and comprehensive way. He examined existing literature, compiled case studies, and made detailed notes of his own autopsies. The resulting work, De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis, was published in 1761 when he was 79 years old and includes the records of nearly 700 postmortem examinations. Morgagni’s monumental work was instrumental in the overthrow of Galenic humoral pathology.

Morgagni was very thorough in his written description of cancer, kidney stones, liver cirrhosis, and the pathology of the vascular system. His descriptions of aneurysms are particularly good.

De sedibus is arranged according to the organs in which the principal lesions are found. The 1765 edition has an exceptionally valuable index. The “Index Secundus” with the subheading of “Morbos, & Symptomata exhibens, illorumque externas causas, aetates extremas, vitae genus, artes, & alia ejusmodi” indexes diseases and exhibiting symptoms, their external causes, the last stages of life, kind of life, skills, and other things of this type.

More than 60 years after De sedibus was first published, a second English translation with additional notes was completed by William Cooke, a London surgeon. In the preface of The Seats and Causes of Diseases, Investigated by Anatomy he writes: “…and it has been universally acknowledged, that, owing to the greater accuracy of his details, this collection of dissections is far more valuable than any which preceded it; nor am I acquainted with any parallel work which has subsequently appeared.” [Morgagni v]

next author: William Cheselden (1688-1752).

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Oribasii Sardiani Synopseos ad Eustathium filium lib. novem. Parisiis: In officina Audoeni Parvi…, 1554. Fulltext online

Oribasius, Oribasii Sardiani Synopseos….

Oribasius, Oribasii Sardiani Synopseos…. Note the frog within the initial C.

Like Galen, Oribasius was born in Pergamon. He studied in the medical school at Alexandria before he became physician to the Emperor Julian, who was the nephew of Constantine. Oribasius was among the most important medical writers of the Byzantine period. In his 70-volume medical encyclopedia, he preserved the writings of many early physicians, whom he translated and excerpted with great care. This volume was written for his son, Eustachius, and demonstrates his clinical knowledge in the areas of childhood diseases, diet in pregnancy, and the choice of nurses for infants.

next author: Aëtius, of Amida (502-575).

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Pauli’ Aeginatae Praecepta salubria. Argentorat: ex aedibus Mathiae Schurerij…, 1511.

Pauli Aeginetae Medici opera…. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Rouillium…, 1589. Fulltext online, 1542

Paulus Aegineta, …Praecepta salubria. The title page shows the title arranged in a centered style. It lists only the author and “interpreter” (translator). The printer is not named.

Paulus Aegineta, …Praecepta salubria. Close-up of historiated initial of a young woman’s face. Notice the plant visible in the background.

The last important physician from the School of Alexandria, Paul of Aegina was, like the other Alexandrines, a compiler of medical knowledge whose work was consulted and printed in the Renaissance. Paul was especially renowned for his skill as a surgeon of the genitalia and for his knowledge of heart diseases. His work shows what surgery was like in the seventh century, especially in the areas of eye surgery, dentistry, obstetrics, and military surgery.

next author: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (865?-925?).

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Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi, Rhasis philosophi tractatus nonus ad regem Almansorem…. Front Cover. This binding, covered with musical notes and made from an old manuscript, was probably added in the 20th century.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi, Rhasis philosophi tractatus nonus ad regem Almansorem…. This is volume nine, Therapeutics, the most widely read. Other volumes cover physiology, dietetics, rules of health, surgery, poisons, and fevers. The initial and ornament to the left of the title closely resemble that of our 1537 Galen. Both books were printed in Paris.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi, Rhasis philosophi tractatus nonus ad regem Almansorem…. Note the delicate decorative design of the initial.

The Almansor is a medical encyclopedia in ten volumes, written by the Islamic doctor and scholar Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (Rhasis), who, along with Galen and Hippocrates, ranks as a founder of clinical medicine. He was born near Tehran and during his career directed hospitals both in Tehran and Baghdad. A follower of the teachings of Galen, Razi questioned those ideas that contradicted his experience. Although he was a noted clinician, his great contribution came as a compiler of medical information: his encyclopedia brought together the work of diverse authors and provided the results of many clinical experiments. Razi’s writings, which included the first descriptions of smallpox and measles, also added to the understanding of ophthalmology and obstetrics. His work was studied in Arabic and Greek editions before being translated into Latin in the fifteenth century.

next author: Avicenna (980-1037).

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Medical Inquiries and Observations. Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Dobson, at the Stone-house, no. 41, South second-street, 1794-98. Fulltext online: Volume One, 1794, Volume Two, 1797, Volume Three, 1794, Volume Four, 1796, and Volume Five, 1798 available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

Benjamin Rush, Medical Inquiries and Observations.

Benjamin Rush, Medical Inquiries and Observations. “An Account of the Measles.”

By the time Benjamin Rush was twenty he had graduated from college and was in Edinburgh, Scotland, for medical school. He became a noted Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence whose actions and beliefs won scorn as well as praise.

Rush is considered by some to be one of the great physicians in American history. He wrote the first American textbook on what we call psychiatry, proposed the study of veterinary medicine, and called for restrictions on the use of alcohol and tobacco. After battling a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793-94, he published his observations and ideas for prevention of the disease.

Well known in the influential circle that included Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson appointed Rush medical advisor for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Yet Jefferson did not approve of Rush’s reliance on blood-letting, and Rush stubbornly refused to back away from his belief in its efficacy. Rush also blundered politically in secretly declining to support General George Washington in one of his campaigns. When his lack of support was discovered, Rush’s career, at least politically, was tarnished. Nevertheless he continued to be an influential presence in American medicine.

next author: Antonio Scarpa (1752-1832).

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Medicina statica: Being the Aphorisms of Sanctorius. London: Printed for T. Longman…and J. Newton…, 1737. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

La medicina statica. In Venezia: Appresso Domenico Occhi, 1743. Fulltext online

Santorio Santorio, Medicina statica…. The Introduction discusses “Mechanical Knowledge, and the Grounds of Certainty in Physick.”

Santorio Santorio, Medicina statica…. The frontispiece of the 1737 edition shows Santorio’s famous balance seat where he spent much of his time eating, working, and sleeping. Over a period of 30 years he weighed his dietary intake and bodily excretions and determined that the amount of the visible excreta was less than what he ate and drank. He concluded that a substantial portion of the weight of his food intake was lost from the body through his skin as “insensible perspiration.”

Santorio Santorio, La medicina statica. This is an image of the title page and frontispiece in our 1743 volume. Santorio is placed in a more elaborately drawn room and has longer hair than shown in the 1737 edition.

The Italian physician Santorio Santorio practiced medicine and was professor of medical theory at the University of Padua. His writings demonstrate the transition taking place in medicine as Hippocratic and Galenic theories were seriously questioned. Santorio helped foster the importance of physiology and became part of the Iatrophysical School that emphasized the use of math and physics to gain an understanding of physiological processes.

Santorio made more than theoretical contributions to science and medicine. He is credited with inventing a wind gauge, a water current meter, the “pulsilogium” to measure the pulse rate, an instrument to remove bladder stones, and a trocar to drain fluid from cavities. Both he and his friend Galileo mentioned the thermoscope, a precursor to the thermometer. There is debate over the actual inventor, but it is known that Santorio was the first to add a numerical scale to the instrument.

In 1614 Santorio published Medicina statica, the first systematic study of basal metabolism. Praised by his contemporaries, this well-received work was printed in many editions and translations over the next century and a half. Our 1737 edition is an English translation by Dr. John Quincy with additions by Dr. James Keil and Dr. Quincy.

This is Quincy’s translation of Santorio’s fifth aphorism:

Insensible Perspiration is either made by the Pores of the Body, which is all over perspirable, and cover’d with a Skin like a Net; or it is performed by Respiration through the Mouth, which usually, in the Space of one Day, amounts to about the Quantity of half a Pound, as may plainly be made appear by breathing upon a Glass.

next author: William Harvey (1578-1657).

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Anatomicarum annotationum… . [Mutinae, 1779].

Saggio di osservazioni e d’esperienze sulle principali malattie degli occhi. Pavia: Baldassare Comino, 1801. Fulltext online

Antonio Scarpa, Saggio…sulle principali mallatti degli occhi. Frontispiece.

Antonio Scarpa, Anatomicarum annotationum… . These plates demonstrate Scarpa’s engraving skills.

Antonio Scarpa, Saggio…sulle principali mallatti degli occhi. These first edition copper plate illustrations again exemplify Scarpa’s brilliant drawing skills.

The most brilliant student of Morgagni and a co-founder of pathological anatomy, Antonio Scarpa earned his medical degree when he was only 18. He served as chair of anatomy and later of surgery at the University of Padua and was distinguished as a researcher, teacher, and surgeon. Scarpa’s anatomical research lasted nearly 60 years, and he continued to write until a year before his death.

Scarpa authored important works in otolaryngology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, neuroanatomy, and general surgery. He added new knowledge that had practical application for surgeons. He was the first to accurately describe the pathological anatomy of congenital clubfoot and also introduced the concept of arteriosclerosis, and identified “Scarpa’s triangle” of the thigh.

Anatomicarum annotationum examines nerve fibers in the ganglia, plexuses, and the olfactory system. In addition to his medical skills Scarpa was an excellent artist and engraved most of his own plates.

Saggio di osservazioni e d’esperienze sulle principali mallatti degli occhi contains Scarpa’s practical observations on the main diseases of the eyes and is illustrated. He describes the treatment of cataract by depression rather than extraction, notes his procedure for making artificial pupils, and suggests a surgical treatment of dropsy of the eyeball. The first ophthalmology text published in Italian, it remained the standard for several decades.

next author: Matthew Baillie (1761-1823).

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A Sett of Anatomical Tables, with Explanations, and an Abridgement, of the Practice of Midwifery. London printed: [s.n.], 1754. Fulltext online

Traité de la theorie et pratique des accouchemens. Paris: Delaguette, 1754-58. Fulltext online

William Smellie, A Sett of Anatomical Tables…. This engraving shows the gravid uterus when labor is somewhat advanced.

William Smellie, A Sett of Anatomical Tables…. This is Smellie’s engraving of twins in utero.

William Smellie, A Sett of Anatomical Tables…. For this labor complication Smellie explains various manipulations to change the position of the fetus by the practitioner’s hand, and that failing, suggests tying a noose around the ankles.

William Smellie, A Sett of Anatomical Tables…. This image shows the head of the fetus “helped along with the Forceps as artificial Hands.”

In a world where midwifery was dominated by women, William Smellie was one of the first notable man-midwives in Great Britain. He eventually became one of the greatest figures in obstetrical history. He based his teaching of obstetrics and midwifery on scientific principles, developed and refined obstetrical tools, was the first to outline safe rules for the use of forceps, and separated surgery from obstetrical practice. Through years of experience and scientific observation, Smellie accurately described the birth process in his book, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery. Based on 1,150 deliveries, the book covers normal obstetrics as well as complications. The first French edition, Traité de la theorie et pratique des accouchemens, was published in 1754, two years after the first English edition.

Also in 1754, Smellie published A Sett of Anatomical Tables, with Explanations, and an Abridgement, of the Practice of Midwifery. Thought to be issued in only 100 copies, this set of plates is extremely rare. It provided the most detailed and accurate depictions of childbirth at the time of its publication. In his preface Smellie states, “…the greatest part of the figures were taken from Subjects prepared on purpose, to shew eyery thing that might conduce to the improvement of the young Practitioner, avoiding however the extreme Minutiæ.”

According to One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine,

The plates in this classic of obstetrical illustration are far superior to any that had appeared before. They give everywhere a masterly representation, true to nature, of the relations of the parts of mother and child, and have perhaps contributed more to spreading correct ideas of labor than all the books that have ever been written on the subject. (One Hundred Books 162)

Smellie illustrates a number of complications possible in childbirth and gives detailed directions for delivery. He was the first to use forceps to rotate the fetal head and the first to use them on the head in a breech delivery. He made important modifications to the “Chamberlen” forceps, included shortening and curving the blades and perfecting a locking mechanism.

next author: James Lind (1716-1794).

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Observationes medicae: circa morborum acutorum historiam & curationem. [London?: s.n.], 1695.

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A Treatise on the Diseases of Children, with General Directions for the Management of Infants from Birth …. London: Printed for J. Mathews, 1789. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children….

Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children…. This section of the index includes the skin-bound entries for pages 173-191.

Michael Underwood, A Treatise on the Diseases of Children…. Here begins the first account of polio in the section entitled, “Debility of the Lower Extremities.”

Underwood was born in Surrey, England. He studied surgery and midwifery, a discipline that included pediatrics as well as obstetrics, in London and Paris. He was highly regarded as a “man-midwife” and attended prominent women of the day, including the daughter-in-law of King George III. Underwood oversaw a total of seven editions of his Treatise in his long lifetime, with each successive version written more for the medical profession than for the lay person. One of the best eighteenth-century English works on pediatrics, it remained a standard text for over 60 years.

In addition to a discussion of various diseases, Underwood includes an extensive section on the general care of infants. His baby formula, consisting of boiled cow’s milk and barley water, is the era’s closest imitation of mother’s milk. Underwood makes clear his preference for mother’s milk,

It would be unpardonable, however, in a work of this sort, not to insist how inadequate every substitute for the breast has been universally found; and therefore how proper it is, that every child should have it, and even be suckled by its own mother, where her health can safely admit of it.

Underwood gives a superior discussion of thrush and rickets, and in the 1799 edition, he is the first to describe congenital heart disease. The Treatise also gives the first detailed description of sclerema neonatorum, a disorder of the adipose tissue generally occurring in infants suffering from a serious underlying illness. Called skin-bound in the Treatise, it is also now known as “Underwood’s disease.”

The second edition is notable for including the first account of polio in a section entitled, “Debility of the Lower Extremities.” Underwood writes,

The disorder intended here is not noticed by any medical writer within the compass of my reading, or is not so described as to ascertain the disease. It is not a common disorder, I believe, and seems to occur seldomer in London than in some other parts. Nor am I enough acquainted with it to be fully satisfied, either in regard to the true cause, or seat of the disease, either from my own observation, or that of others; and I have myself never had opportunity of examining the body of any child who has died of this complaint. I shall therefore only describe its symptoms, and mention the several means attempted for its cure, in order to induce other practitioners to pay attention to it.

Underwood then describes “…the debility of the lower extremities which gradually become more infirm, and after a few weeks are unable to support the body.”

next author: Benjamin Rush (1746-1813).

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La anatomia del corpo umano. Vinetia: nella stamperia Giunti, 1586. Fulltext online

Juan de Valverde, La anatomia del corpo umano. Lungs and thoracic cavity.

Juan de Valverde, La anatomia del corpo umano. This text accompanies the illustration below.

Juan de Valverde, La anatomia del corpo umano.

Juan de Valverde. La anatomia del corpo umano. A biography of the author found in the preface.

A pupil of Realdo Columbo, a noted physician at Padua University who studied under Vesalius, Juan de Valverde became the most important anatomist in Spain during his lifetime. When his work was translated into Italian and Latin it became even better known, even though most of the drawings were taken from Vesalius and most of the text was from Fabricius.

These images are all copper engravings derived from the Vesalius corpus.

next author: Fabricius, ab Aquapendente (ca. 1533-1619).

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Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, invictissimi Caroli V. Imperatoris medici, de humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basileae: per Ioannem Oporinum, [1555]. Fulltext online

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Vesalius gestures toward the corpse.

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

Andreas Vesalius, …de humani corporis fabrica libri septem.

A name revered by students of medicine through the ages, Vesalius became known as the founder of anatomical studies. Born in Brussels, he was considered controversial at times, especially when he taught at the University of Padua, where his anatomical demonstrations and his questioning of the classical masters caused an uproar. Yet, indisputably, he advanced the understanding of anatomy.

Andreas Vesalius’s Fabrica is not only the most famous anatomical book ever published and the foundation of modern anatomy, but a work of extraordinary beauty as well. The seven sections of this detailed book deal with the structure and functions of the various body systems, and the book’s arrangement is innovative in itself. In what was essentially an anatomy textbook, Vesalius provided a fuller description than earlier writers, and he corrected many anatomical errors of Galen. Here for the first time were mostly accurate renderings of human muscles, bones, organs, and nerves. Moreover, Vesalius asserted that physicians themselves must perform cadaver dissections so as to learn sufficient detail of human anatomy.

The more than 200 woodcut drawings are notable for their accuracy, detail, and beauty as well as for their direct relationship to the text. Vesalius oversaw their execution by an artist whose identity is lost to us, but who was likely a student of Titian, and whom some posit was Flemish artist Jan van Calcar. Debate on this subject continues today. What seems certain, however, is that the wood blocks for the illustrations were cut in Venice and transported across the Alps by mule to Basel, where the printer Oporinus received them with strict and copious instructions from Vesalius. Four hundred years later, in 1943, the original wood blocks for the Fabrica as well as those for other books by Vesalius, were destroyed by the Allied bombings of Munich.

Our copy, a second edition, was published in 1555. For reasons we do not know, the title page drawing was recut with many changes from the 1543 original, including, in the foreground, the addition of a goat beside the dog. The whole effect of the scene has a wooden quality not present in the original. Notice how stiff the drapery of the clothing is. Vesalius, with a newly drawn, larger head, is still positioned beside the open cadaver and gestures toward it. The crowded scene of the anatomy theater is probably somewhat accurate, although it has been dramatized for effect. Altogether the perspective and atmosphere that was so admired in the original is lost here.

next author: Bartolomeo Eustachi (1520?-1574).

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A Treatise on the Venereal Disease. London: Printed by W. Bulmer for G. and W. Nicol, 1810.

A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds…. Philadelphia: Published by Thomas Bradford, printer, book-seller & stationer, no. 8, South front-street, 1796. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

John Hunter, A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds…. This plate “represents two rabbits’ ears, one in the natural state, the other in an inflamed state, in consequence of having been frozen and thawed.”

John Hunter, A Treatise on the Venereal Disease. Our third edition has seven plates including this one with the explanation, “A kidney whose ureter, pelvis, and infundibula, are very considerably enlarged in consequence of a stricture in the urethra.”

At the age of 20 John Hunter left Scotland for London to study at the anatomy school run by his older brother William. Within a year John was demonstrating dissections himself. Later, he served as a surgeon with the British army during part of the Seven Years’ War. It was then that he observed many gunshot wounds and began to collect material for A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds. After two years of army service Hunter returned to London and taught, wrote, did research, and ran a private practice.

Hunter’s contributions to medicine are numerous. He helped transform surgery from a manual craft to an experimental science, and his studies on inflammation were revolutionary and extensive. He wrote important works on teeth and began scientific dentistry in Great Britain, founded the Hunterian Museum with more than 13,000 specimens, was a major contributor to both comparative anatomy and pathological anatomy, performed innovative techniques for treating aneurysms, and was an outstanding orthopedic surgeon.

A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot Wounds was first published posthumously in 1794 by Hunter’s nephew, Matthew Baillie, and includes a biography of Hunter written by his brother-in-law, Everard Home. Home describes how Hunter suffered episodes of attacks or spasms in the last few years of life, and that while “…bodily exercise, or distention of the stomach, brought on slighter affections, it still required the mind to be affected to render them severe.” Home includes the results of an autopsy following Hunter’s sudden death and observes,

The stoppage of the pulse arose from a spasm upon the heart, and in this state the nerves were probably pressed against the ossified arteries, which may account for the excruciating pain he felt at those times. The other symptoms may be explained from the defect in the valves and the dilatation of the aorta, which had lost its elasticity.

In Hunter’s day controversy existed concerning the cause of venereal diseases. To test whether one pathogen or more than one was responsible, Hunter inoculated a subject (quite possibly himself) with pus from a patient with gonorrhea. When the subject showed signs of syphilis, Hunter concluded that the theory of a single pathogen was true. Unfortunately, his patient probably had both syphilis and gonorrhea, and Hunter’s conclusion hampered progress in this area for another 70 years.

next author: Michael Underwood (1736-1820).

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Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis, opera quae apud nos extant omnia. Lugduni: Apud Ant. Vincentium, 1555. Fulltext online

Hippocrates, Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis….

Hippocrates, Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis…. These initial letters, at the beginning of a chapter or paragraph, are sometimes illustrated with exquisite miniature figures, botanicals or decorative edgings. They are called historiated initials. The word “history” comes from Greek by way of Latin, meaning to tell a story or narrative.

Hippocrates, Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis….

Hippocrates, Hippocratis coi medicorum omnium longe principis….

Little is known about the man, Hippocrates of Cos, who lived in the fifth century BCE. But through the writings associated with him, Hippocrates has been credited with developing a system of empirical medicine based on clinical experience, allied to philosophy, and dedicated to the “art” of medical practice. The best physicians distinguished themselves from the rest by practicing this art (techne) which was an approach to diagnosis and treatment based on experience, observation, and logical reasoning. Though attributed to Hippocrates and his school, the Hippocratic corpus was likely brought together in Alexandria, and for centuries exerted a huge influence on the development of Western medicine. The name Hippocrates would be famous today for the Hippocratic Oath alone.

This book is one of the fundamental texts of Western medicine, which first appeared in a printed Latin edition in 1525. Ours is a revised edition, printed 30 years later.

The Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath first appeared in print in a collection of medical texts that has been traced back to the twelfth century and the earliest medieval European center of medical instruction, the School of Salerno. After its Latin translation by Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370-1444), the Oath was widely copied and appeared in subsequent editions of the Articella and other collected works. Beginning in 1525 it began to appear in collected Latin editions of Hippocrates. The Oath has long been a model for moral and ethical standards in medicine, and it endures in modified form to this day. In antiquity, however, it was generally not considered a violation of medical ethics to do what the Oath forbade. Today most American medical school students pledge some version of the oath when they graduate, but there is wide-ranging debate as to what the implications – moral and legal – of the oath are.

Here is a modern translation of the Hippocratic Oath:

I swear by Apollo the Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant: To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parent and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art–if they desire to learn it–without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but to no one else. I will apply dietetic measure for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice. I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and in holiness I will guard my life and my art. I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work. Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself holding such things shameful to be spoken about. If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite be my lot. [Edelstein 6]

next author: Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE-50CE).

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Anatomical Exercitations, Concerning the Generation of Living Creatures…. London: Printed by J. Young for O. Pulleyn, 1653. Fulltext available through EEBO: Early English Books Online (UVa access only)

Opera omnia: a Collegio Medicorum Londinensi edita. [Londini: Guilielmus Bowyer], 1766. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

William Harvey, Anatomical Exercitations….

William Harvey, Anatomical Exercitations…. In the chapter entitled “The Reason why we begin with a Henns Egge” Harvey explains he will use his teacher Fabricius as guide.

William Harvey, Anatomical Exercitations…. From the chapter “What an egge is.”

William Harvey, Opera omnia…. This title page and several leaves at the beginning of the book were copied and added before a modern binding was attached.

William Harvey, Opera omnia…. Blood circulation.

An Englishman trained at Cambridge University before he studied at the University of Padua under Fabricius, William Harvey set up a London practice and became a professor of anatomy at the College of Physicians. Some consider his treatise on the circulation of the blood the most significant finding in the history of medicine. In addition to this remarkable discovery, Harvey’s work also made a huge contribution to the scientific method. Historian H. P. Bayon called it “the first record of a complete scientific investigation,” in which a problem was defined, methods of solving the problem were explained, and the results were reported. Because Harvey refuted Galen’s theories of blood movement, his work took time to be accepted and for several decades was considered controversial.

Harvey’s treatise on embryology, Anatomical Excertations, Concerning the Generation of Living Creatures, would have secured his place among the great medical thinkers on its own. Here, expounding on Professor Fabricius’s work, Harvey disavowed the accepted doctrine of a pre-formed fetus, maintaining instead that the fetus proceeded from the ovum and then slowly grew and developed.

next author: René Descartes (1596-1650).

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The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. London: Printed by Adam Islip[,] Joice Norton and Richard Whitakers, 1633. Fulltext online

John Gerard, The Herball….

John Gerard, The Herball…. Fritillaria.

John Gerard, The Herball…. Saffron or Crocus.

John Gerard, The Herball…. the Virginia potato.

John Gerard was a London barber-surgeon as well as an expert on plants, the source of nearly all medicines during his lifetime. In 1597 Gerard published his Herball, which was a plagiarized translation of a book by Dutch author Rembert Dodoen. Gerard’s innovation was to add a list of plants discovered by explorers of the New World: this included the potato. In 1633 Thomas Johnson published the revised edition of Gerard which we own. Not only did Johnson correct many mistakes in the text, he added about 800 plants and 700 illustrations.

Although Gerard was mostly interested in plants for their medicinal qualities, his pleasant writing style drew those interested in the decorative aspects of plants. Despite the fact that Gerard’s work contains what we recognize today as much mis-information, he advanced plant knowledge and his plant lists set a precedent for later botanical garden catalogues to emulate.

Gerard on the daffodil: “having narrowe leaves, thicke, fat, and full of slimie juice; among the which riseth up a naked stalke smooth and hollow, of a foot high, beaning at the top a faire milke white floure growing forth of a hood.”

next author: England and Wales. Sovereign (1558-1603: Elizabeth 1).

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Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. Parisiis: [Apud Joannem Foucherium], 1542. Fulltext online

Bernard de Gordon, Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. Note that the title page has been drawn in by hand. This was likely done not long after the book was published. It is interesting that early printers tried to imitate manuscripts. In this case, someone was trying to imitate printing!

Bernard de Gordon, Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. Years ago it was standard practice for students to make copious notes in books. Here every bit of the page has been covered with small manuscript annotations in Latin.

Bernard de Gordon, Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. Note the leaf has been inserted, presumably by the person responsible for the substituted title page.

Bernard de Gordon. Omnium aegritudinum a vertice ad calcem, opus praeclariss. A printer’s device at the end of the book.

Bernard was most likely a scion of a noble family with roots in Gourdon, a town in the former French province of Quercy (département of the Lot). He studied and taught at the University of Montpellier from the 1250s to at least 1308. He completed his best known work, Lilium medicinae (“Lily of Medicine”), in 1305. An encyclopedia of diseases with their symptoms, causes, effects, and treatments, the Lilium gained wide circulation in scores of handwritten copies (manuscripts), in translations from Latin into French, Hebrew, Irish, and Spanish and, from 1480 on, in a dozen printed editions. It was cited for three centuries, as an authoritative text on ailments ranging from headache to gout, from epilepsy to leprosy, and from insanity to impotence. The wide influence of Bernard de Gordon was due to his comprehensive coverage of the theoretical and practical knowledge then available, familiarity with the classical and Judeo-Arabic medical traditions, logical organization and argument, and obvious concern with the patient’s health.

Our copy contains not only Bernard de Gordon’s Lilium medicinae but five other treatises by him, including one on prognostication that illustrates the importance of astrology and, more importantly, the concern of earlier physicians to predict the course of an illness. It is an especially interesting copy because of several unusual physical properties.

next author: Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566).

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Institutiones medicae…Editionem istam curavit, et auxit Joannes Baptista Soldevilla…. Matriti: Ex typographia Villalpandea, 1796-97. Fulltext online

Herman Boerhaave, Institutiones medicae…. Our 1796 edition indicates the longevity of Boerhaave’s teaching. It was published nearly 90 years after the first edition.

In 1701 the Dutch physician, Herman Boerhaave, began a teaching career at the University of Leiden. Boerhaave had an outstanding comprehension of medicine, chemistry, and physics. His engaging personality, lucid lecture style, and good clinical teaching attracted students from all over Europe to attend his presentations. They took his principles and textbooks back home to other medical schools and clinical practices so that his influence on medicine continued long after his death. One of his most esteemed pupils, Albrecht von Haller, called him “communis totius Europae praeceptor” or the general teacher of all Europe.

Boerhaave compiled his most influential work, Institutiones medicae, for the use of his medical students. One of the first textbooks of physiology, it was published in many translations and editions, some without his authority. Unlike certain contemporaries who made major discoveries in medicine, Boerhaave summarized and organized what was acknowledged in physiology and pathology at the time he lived. He incorporated assorted approaches into his work, including the role of the humors.

next author: Giambattista Morgagni (1682-1771).

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Aulus Cornelius Celsus, [De medicina libri viii]. Front cover. This incunabulum (originally meaning cradle, but now the accepted term for a book printed before 1501) is the oldest volume in our collection. Although this copy contains no illuminated or hand-painted images, it exemplifies the transition from manuscripts to printed texts. The printers left spaces to add hand-painted, illustrated initials, and they made margins wide enough to permit hand illumination there as well.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus, [De medicina libri viii]. Note marginalia.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus, [De medicina libri viii]. Note space left for decorated or hand-painted letters to be added.

De medicina is one of the oldest documents in Western medicine after the Hippocratic writings. Aulus Cornelius Celsus may have been only a writer and an editor, and not a practicing physician, but in his time the difference between what a learned person and a doctor knew about medicine might not have been great. Whatever his background, Celsus left the best account we have of Roman medicine and surgery. Much of his work appears to be a compilation from the Greeks, including Hippocrates.

The books of De medicina formed part of a larger work called Artes, which contained sections (now lost) on military science, agriculture, philosophy, rhetoric, and jurisprudence. After a preface De medicina gives a thorough account of medicine and surgery in eight books: two books on diet; followed by two on diseases treated by diet; then two books on diseases treated with medicines; and, finally, two books on the uses of surgery. Celsus recognized the importance of basing the study of medicine on anatomy. He stressed that diagnosis should precede treatment, and he recommended the use of drugs more than the Greeks did. However, Celsus also considered hygiene and exercise important to maintaining good health. All this is carefully brought together in an elegant prose style that has won praise from Latinists for centuries.

next author: Pedanius Dioscorides (fl.50-70).

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The Anatomy of the Human Body. London: Printed by W. Bowyer, 1741. Fulltext available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

William Cheselden, The Anatomy of the Human Body. Note the illustration of a camera obscura which was used to ensure the accuracy of Cheselden’s plates.

William Cheselden, The Anatomy of the Human Body. Cheselden included case studies in his volume. This image explicitly portrays the injury of Samuel Wood whose arm and scapula were torn off when a rope fastened to cogs at a mill became entangled around his arm. The text indicates that the miller survived his accidental amputation.

William Cheselden, The Anatomy of the Human Body. This table shows the internal organs and structures of the torso.

William Cheselden was a prominent British surgeon in the early eighteenth century. Recognizing a need to establish formal anatomy coursework, Cheselden offered private classes. As a surgeon, he developed a lateral perineal incision to remove stones from the bladder and became noted for this procedure. Critical in the days before anesthesia, his surgery took Cheselden only minutes to perform instead of hours, resulting in an operative mortality of less than ten percent. His first major work, The Anatomy of the Humane Body, (the e in humane was eventually dropped), was published in 1713 and became a standard medical textbook for nearly 100 years. Our sixth edition of The Anatomy of the Human Body has forty copper plates, thirteen more than the first edition. His greater achievement was Osteographia, or The Anatomy of the Bones, a volume depicting the human skeleton on a grand and beautiful scale.

next author: Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770).

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Sara Huyser, Anne McKeithen, and Janet Pearson, members of the staff of Historical Collections at The Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, wrote and compiled the material for Vaulted Treasures under the direction of Joan Echtenkamp Klein.

Joaquin Bueno designed the Web exhibit and graphics, with the server expertise of David Moody and the assistance of Bart Ragon. Special thanks to Claudia Sueyras who scanned many of the books and Andrew Sallans who provided technical assistance.

All text and images in this exhibit are the property of Historical Collections. For permission to reproduce any of the text or images or to make comments or suggestions, please contact a member of Historical Collections.

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The English Physician: Or, An Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation. London: Printed for the benefit of the Commonwealth of England, 1652. Fulltext available through Early English Books Online (UVa access only)

Culpeper’s English Physician and Complete Herbal…. London: Printed for J. Adlard…for the proprietor and sold at the Encyclopedia Office…and by Champante and Whitrow, 1807-1810. Fulltext online

Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician….

Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician….

Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician….

Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician…. A Catalogue of the Herbs and Plants.

Nicholas Culpeper, Culpeper’s English Physician and Complete Herbal…. A description of wallflowers.

One of the most influential herbalist writers, Nicholas Culpeper wrote extensively on diseases and how to cure them with simple herbs. His work included the first book on midwifery known to be written in English. Most importantly Culpeper advocated a theory of astrological herbalism, popular in mid-seventeenth century England, which tried to show the relationship between plants and the planets. Culpeper’s The English Physician, his most important work, appeared in 1652: later editions were numerous. In the preface Culpeper claimed that his book was superior to Gerard’s (and Johnson’s edited version of Gerard) because it dealt with herbs easily found and grown in England, whereas, he said, Gerard’s included many plants impossible to find in the country. The 1807-1810 edition of The English Physician has careful and plentiful illustrations by E. Sibly.

The title page of The English Physician explains its purpose:

Being a compleat Method of Physick, whereby a man may preserve his Body in health; or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things onely as grow in England, they being most fit for English Bodies.
Here in also shewed,
1. The way of making Plaisters, Oyntments, Oyls, Pultisses, Syrups, Decoctions, Julips, or Waters, of all sorts of Physical Herbs, that you may have them ready for your use at all times of the year.
2. What Planet governeth every Herb or Tree (used in Physick) that groweth in England.
3. The Time of gathering all Herbs, but vulgarly, and astrologically.
4. The way of drying and keeping the Herbs all the yeer.
5. The way of keeping the Juyces ready for use at all times.
6. The way of making and keeping all kinde of usefull Compounds made of Herbs.
7. The way of mixing Medicines according to Cause and Mixture of the Disease, and Part of the Body afflicted.

next author: Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689).

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De materia medica libri sex. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Rouillium, 1554. Fulltext online

Pedanius Dioscorides, De materia medica libri sex. A printer’s ornament is the same as found in the Galen Aphorisms printed the same year.

Pedanius Dioscorides. De materia medica libri sex. Historiated initial.

Pedanius Dioscorides. De materia medica libri sex. Shown are the names of plants familiar to us today, Chrysanthemum and Ageratum.

A Greek surgeon who served in Nero’s army in the first century, Pedanius Dioscorides wrote an extensive guide to pharmacy and medical botany. Considered the classic text for 1500 years, it describes more than 600 plants and plant ingredients. Dioscorides included details of plant habitat and methods of growing and harvesting plants, as well as their medical usage and dosage. Even though opium had been used for centuries, Dioscorides was the first to describe its benefits and dangers. He also discussed mineral and animal products that were of medicinal value. His work identified plant families long before Linneaus’s classification system in the eighteenth century.

Our copy was translated by Pietro Mattioli of Siena, who studied medicine at the University of Padua and was physician to Holy Roman Emperors Ferdinand I and then Maximilian II. Mattioli wrote books on the practice of medicine, therapeutics, and syphilis, but this was his most popular work. Mattioli translated De materia into Italian in 1544 and provided the best botanical illustrations known at that time. Ours is a later, pocket-sized edition of the same text, but it does not have the fine illustrations of earlier editions.

next author: Galen (ca. 130-ca. 200).

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Orders Thought Meete by Her Maiestie, and Her Priuie Councell, To Be Executed Throughout the Counties of the Realme, in Such Townes, Villages, and Other Places, As Are, Or May Be Hereafter Infected with the Plague…. [London]: Imprinted at London by Christopher Barker, printer to the Queenes Most Excellent Maiestie, [1593?]. Fulltext online

England and Wales. Sovereign (1558-1603: Elizabeth I). Orders Thought Meete by Her Maiestie…. This copy was likely distributed as a pamphlet, which was later bound into a book. The title page explains that it was to be distributed to all towns and places which might be infected with plague.

England and Wales. Sovereign (1558-1603: Elizabeth I). Orders Thought Meete by Her Maiestie…. “An aduise set downe.” Here begins the advice for households. The first is a recipe for “correcting the aire in Houses.”

Published under the auspices of Elizabeth I during an outbreak of the plague in England, this presents a fascinating look at public health, epidemiology, and illness in the late sixteenth century. The book contains instructions for the Queen’s emissaries in identifying towns struck by plague and then directs them in how to proceed with taxation, issues related to quarantine, and the handling of the clothing and bodies of those who died. It concludes with recipes for preparing medicines that would, purportedly, prevent the plague or cure it if already contracted.

next author: Santorio Santorio (1561-1636).

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Tabulae anatomicae clarissimi viri…. Amstelaedami: apud R. & G. Wetstenios, 1722. Fulltext online

Bartolomeo Eustachi, Tabulae anatomicae…. The title page includes an engraving of a dissection. Note the dogs cleaning up the floor.

Bartolomeo Eustachi, Tabulae anatomicae…. The Encyclopaedia Britannica printed this Eustachi plate showing the base of the brain and associated nerves in its 1817 edition, nearly 250 years after its first engraving. Eustachi garnered his information from many autopsies so his drawings are general composites that accurately portray the human body.

Bartolomeo Eustachi, Tabulae anatomicae…. This figure shows the nerves as seen from the back. The awkward pose of the legs and feet allows more nerves to be displayed. The numbers along the sides of the drawing facilitate the location of the body parts referred to in the commentary.

Bartolomeo Eustachi, Tabulae anatomicae…. Our copy contains a medical student’s copious notes about the dissection of the brain.

Bartolomeo Eustachi of “Eustachian tube” fame was a sixteenth-century contemporary of Vesalius. He spent most of his professional career in Rome where he taught anatomy, performed autopsies at hospitals, and carried out dissections. Eustachi’s most famous contribution to anatomy was not available until 140 years after his death. By 1552 Eustachi had drawn and engraved 47 plates showing the human skeleton and muscles, but only eight plates were printed with text during his lifetime. Eventually all of the plates ended up in the Vatican Library. In the eighteenth century the papal physician, Giovanni Maria Lancisi, added explanations to the previously unpublished plates and published the complete set with text. While not as artistically stylish as Vesalius’s work, Eustachi’s volume is sometimes more accurate. If his entire collection of plates had been published ten years after Vesalius rather than 140 years later, it is probable that the two would have been honored as cofounders of modern anatomical study.

next author:Juan de Valverde (ca. 1525-ca. 1587).

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Fabricius ab Aquapendente, L’opere cirugiche…. Front cover. This book is bound in a heavy paper, in what was perhaps intended as a temporary measure.

Fabricius ab Aquapendente, L’opere cirugiche….

Fabricius ab Aquapendente, L’opere cirugiche…. Printer’s device.

Fabricius ab Aquapendente, L’opere cirugiche…. Found at the end of the volume, this illustration appears to have been added to the book after it was printed.

Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente was the Latin name for Girolamo Fabritio, an anatomist and surgeon who taught for many years in Padua. He had been the pupil of Gabriele Falloppio, who, in turn, had been the pupil of Vesalius. And Fabricius was tutor to William Harvey, who elaborated on the work of his teacher in at least two important instances. Arguably, the greatest contribution of Fabricius was the discovery of what he called “valves” in the veins of the arms and legs. This concept enabled Harvey to postulate the circulation of the blood.

Fabricius published his De venarum ostiolis in 1603 as an unbound folio pamphlet accompanied by eight engraved plates, which has been described as one of the most beautiful works in the history of anatomy. One plate, showing the valves in the veins of an arm, was adapted by William Harvey for his work on blood circulation. The writings of Fabricius contain important treatises on the structure of the eye and in the field of embryology. Harvey also used Fabricius’s work on the formation of the chick as the basis for his own book on embryology.

next author: John Gerard (1545-1612).

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Leonharti Fuchsii Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Basileae: Per Hieronymum Gemusaeum, 1594.

Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque….

Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Note the worm or insect damage at the right bottom corner of page.

Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Initial includes scene from Genesis showing Eve, Adam, and the Tree.

Leonhard Fuchs. …Institutionum medicinae libri quinque…. Front cover with spine.

Leonhard Fuchs, who knew the work of the ancient botanists and observed nature carefully, prepared a botanical guide that came to be a standard for precise description and accurate woodcut illustrations. They are also pleasing to the eye. He listed each plant alphabetically; named its habitat; described its form; gave its uses; and explained when it should be collected. The genus of flowering plants (Fuchsia) commemorates his name.

next author: Ambroise Paré (1510?-1590).

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Claudii Galeni Pergameni De naturalibus facultatibus libri tres. Parisiis: Ex officina Christiani Wecheli, 1537. Fulltext online

De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus libri undecim…. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Gazellum, 1547.

Galeni omnia qvae extant opera…. Venetiis: Apud Iuntas, 1550.

In aphorismos Hippocratis commentarii septem…. Lugduni: Apud Gulielmum Rovillium, 1554.

Galen, …De naturalibus facultatibus libri tres.

Galen, …De naturalibus facultatibus libri tres. The decoration to the left of the title as well as the historiated initial “Q” are quite similar to that of the 1534 Razi, also printed in Paris but at a different printer’s house.

Galen, …De naturalibus facultatibus libri tres. Note the historiated initial with angel, arrow and man in the moon, and the marginalia.

Six centuries after Hippocrates, Galen was born in Pergamon, a center of culture and learning in what is now Turkey. His work represented the apex of the Hippocratic tradition. Bringing together the best writing of earlier Greek physicians and philosophers, Galen’s writings became the basis of medical study that was transmitted to scholars for hundreds of years. Galenism, as it was called, depended upon a system of humors and qualities which needed to be kept in balance. Among these were heat and cold, moisture and dryness, and bitterness and sweetness. This doctrine, carried forward from earlier Greek thinkers to Hippocrates, and then to Galen, provided the basis for medical theory up until the time of the American Revolution and was still practiced well into the nineteenth century.

Because Galen used animal rather than human dissections, he made many mistakes in anatomy as well as other fields of study. Despite this, Galen was the unchallenged medical authority in Western, Islamic, and Jewish medicine for over a thousand years. He utilized logic, experience, and observation in his extensive writings on physiology, anatomy, and pathology.

Galen became particularly important in the Renaissance as a bridge to classical medicine. In the sixth century, medical scholars in Alexandria considered sixteen Galenic works the core texts for medical study. Partly because he was revered in Arabic as well as Western medicine, Galen’s work continued to be copied and studied during the Middle Ages. As Arabic medical studies gradually became assimilated into the canon at the European universities of Montpellier, Salerno, and Bologna, Galen’s authority grew. During the sixteenth century, especially in Basel and Venice, the texts of Galen were translated into Latin from Arabic as well as from Greek.

The 1537 De naturalibus facultatibus and 1547 De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus both appear as parts of our seven-volume Opera, which was printed in Venice in 1550 by the Giunta family. The Giunta editions of Galen’s complete works, published between 1541 and 1625, are considered among the more important.

Galen, In aphorismos Hippocratis commentarii septem….

Galen, In aphorismos Hippocratis commentarii septem….

Galen, In aphorismos Hippocratis commentarii septem…. Note the decorative band and text in Greek.

In aphorismos Hippocratis contains traditional proverbs pertaining to health that Galen gleaned from the Hippocratic writings. Much of the medical advice, focusing on disease prevention and moderation in lifestyle, today seems sensibly up-to-date. Such books in this pocket size were common among learned people in medieval Europe. This edition contains both Latin and Greek texts.

Excerpts from Hippocrates’s Aphorisms:

“Life is short, the art is long, occasion sudden, experiment dangerous, judgment difficult. Neither is it sufficient that the physician do his office, unless the patient and his attendants do their duty and external conditions are well ordered.” Though this popular Latin saying was widely used by Roman writers and orators, it is generally attributed to Hippocrates, and is placed first in his Aphorisms.

Below are more selections:

“Sleeping or walking, if either be immoderate, is evil.”
“Neither satiety nor hunger nor any other thing which exceeds the natural bounds can be good or healthful.”

next author: Oribasius (325-403).

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L’homme de René Descartes, et la formation du foetus…. Paris: Compagnie des Libraires, 1729.

René Descartes, L’homme…. These drawings show the influence of Descartes’ knowledge of mathematics and geometry on his perception of how the body works.

René Descartes, L’homme…. “…I desire you to consider, I say, that these functions imitate those of a real man as perfectly as possible and that they follow naturally in this machine entirely from the disposition of the organs-no more nor less than do the movements of a clock or other automaton, from the arrangement of its counterweights and wheels.” [Descartes 113]

The French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes, developed a system of dualism which distinguishes between the “mind,” whose essence is thinking, and “matter,” whose essence is extension into space. This dualism influenced his mechanical interpretation of nature and therefore of the human body. He believed that the laws of physics and mathematics explain human physiology. According to One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, De homine, “is the first work in the history of science and medicine to construct a unified system of human physiology that presents man as a purely material and mechanical being: man as machine de terre.” [One Hundred Books 117] This concept helped free the study of physiology from the constraints of religion and culture. De homine is an important early textbook of physiology, but empirically flawed because Descartes’ practical knowledge of his subject was inadequate.

Descartes originally planned to publish De homine in 1633, but hearing of Galileo’s condemnation by the Church, he became concerned for his own safety and refused to have it printed. Consequently, the first edition of this work appeared 12 years after Descartes’ death. Our French edition, L’homme, also includes la formation du foetus which explains reproductive generation in physiological terms.

next author: Francis Glisson (1597-1677).

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Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles of the Human Body. London: Printed by H. Woodfall, for John and Paul Knapton, 1749. 1777 edition available through Eighteenth Century Collections Online (UVa access only)

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles…. This 1749 English edition of the 1747 Latin text was published by John and Paul Knapton in London without Albinus’s permission. Concerned about plagiarism, Albinus issued a warning in another book he published four years later.

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles…. This first table “contains chiefly a front view or figure of the Human Sceleton; whereunto are added some of the Ligaments and Cartilages.”

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles…. The third anatomical table of the human muscles shows the body with the outer muscles removed.

Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles…. Additional muscles have been removed in this image of the fourth anatomical table of the human muscles. The rhinoceros grazing in the background adds an exotic note.

A native of Frankfurt, Bernhard Siegfried Albinus became a professor of anatomy at the University of Leiden at the age of 24. His books include some of the most beautiful and precise drawings of the human body ever published. It took Albinus and artist-engraver Jan Wandelaar over eight years to complete the 40 plates of this remarkable anatomical atlas with its aesthetic style, scientific accuracy, and fanciful backgrounds.

The foundation for Albinus’s illustrations is the human skeleton. Many anatomical drawings begin with the outside of the human body and then work their way deeper, but Albinus carefully removed all the muscles and ligaments so that the illustrations begin with the skeleton. He preserved the soft tissue and then added it to the skeleton to make his “muscle-man.”

In the “Account of the Work” at the beginning of his book Albinus gives a detailed explanation of the methods he used to prepare his skeleton and muscle-man. For support he used a tripod as well as numerous cords passed through the spine, arms, and legs that were then attached to his walls and ceiling. After making minor adjustments with pieces of paper and wood, he explains how he checked the accuracy of the skeleton’s pose, “I next looked out for a thin man, of the same size with my skeleton, and making him stand naked in the same position, I compared the skeleton with him.” Albinus endeavored to set a new standard in anatomical illustration by developing a technique of viewing the specimen through nets with grids that made the perspective and proportion of the human body more accurate. Toward the end of his account, Albinus warns, “he will find it no easy task neither [sic], who engages in an affair of the same kind.”

In addition to the plates of skeletons and muscle-men, each placed in a lush, natural scene that helps to animate the figures and “emphasize the harmonious and natural beauty of the body,” there are over 300 superb drawings of separate muscles and muscle groups.

next author: William Smellie (1697-1763).

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Alexander of Tralles, …Medici libri duodecim. Note the light color at the bottom of the page where it might have been repaired at some time.

Alexander of Tralles, …Medici libri duodecim. Across the top a printer’s ornament serves as a decorative header. The historiated initial “Q” includes a bird. Under the text see a brown stain. It shows up on several pages and appears to be the remains of a spilled liquid, perhaps ink.

Although Alexander of Tralles had scant knowledge of anatomy and physiology, he was a careful observer of clinical situations. He wrote remarkably accurate descriptions of chest conditions, including pleurisy. Alexander continued to be read in the East and West, even though Byzantine medicine began to decline within a century of his death.

next author: Paulus, Aegineta (625?-690?).

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Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine…. Frontispiece. Here is a marvelous portrayal of a hospital. Patients eat and rest, while some workers share a meal and others engage in domestic tasks. Note the leaf was printed in two colors. The edges of all leaves were red-tipped as well. This book was likely rebound in the twentieth century in vellum taken from an old manuscript with musical notes on it.

Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine….

Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine…. Avoid large meals before bedtime.

Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine…. Healthy food.

Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine…. De aesculis: the leaves and nuts of a Hungarian oak or other mast-bearing tree (such as horse chestnut).

Arnaldus, de Villonova and the School of Salerno, De conservanda bona valetudine…. More advice about healthy food and drink.

A celebrated Catalan physician, Arnaldus translated Avicenna, Galen, and Hippocrates into Latin. To accompany his translations, he wrote commentaries that connected thirteenth- and fourteenth-century European medical practice with its classical Greek and Arabic roots, and helped move medicine away from folk practice. Arnald devised a medical curriculum at the University of Montpellier, which became the leading center of medical education in Europe. In addition he wrote extensively on religion and alchemy, and his religious writings caused the Inquisitors to condemn him as a heretic.

Of the many books attributed to Arnald, it is often difficult to determine what he actually wrote. Arnald did write the well-known commentary for the Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum. This book of advice from the Schola Medica Salernitana, or the medical school at Salerno on living a healthy life was, based on the number of editions printed, the most popular medical book of the fifteenth century. An early English translation, written as one long poem, begins:

All Salerne School thus write to England’s King And for man’s health these fit advises bring. Shun busy cares, rash angers, which displease: Light supping, little drink, do cause great ease, Rise after meate, sleep not at after noon, Urine and Nature’s need, expel them soon. Long shalt thy live, if all these well be done.

next author: Bernard de Gordon (1260 -ca. 1318).

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Avicenna, Liber canonis medicine. These woodcut illustrations show authors of classical medical and scientific texts in two vertical columns. In scenes below, physicans appear to be helping patients and instructing others in how to plant and gather herbs.

Avicenna, Liber canonis medicine. Note historiated initials in two sizes and marginalia.

Known in the Western world as the “Prince of Physicians,” Avicenna is the Latin name of the great Islamic doctor and philosopher Ibn Sina. Based on the writings of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Razi (or Rhasis), and Galen, as well as his own observations, Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine codified centuries of Greek and Arabic medicine by bringing together hundreds of pages of classical medical knowledge. Avicenna wrote about epilepsy and described diabetes as well as topics other than medicine that included philosophy, metaphysics, theology, astronomy, and law. He realized that certain diseases were communicable, and he instructed travelers to purify their drinking water by boiling it. The voluminous Canon dominated the medical schools of Europe and Asia for 500 years. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century and was first printed in 1473.

next author: Albertus Magnus (1193?-1280).

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The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body…. Albany: Printed by Barber & Southwick, for Thomas Spencer, bookseller, 1795. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

Matthew Baillie, The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body….

Matthew Baillie, The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body…. The Contents section in this first American edition reveals Baillie’s systematic arrangement.

Matthew Baillie, The Morbid Anatomy of Some of the Most Important Parts of the Human Body…. Here is the description of the lung that Baillie saw in the collection of Mr. Cruikshank. It has been proposed that it was Dr. Samuel Johnson’s lung.

Matthew Baillie was the Scottish nephew of William and John Hunter. Upon the death of William in 1783, Baillie, only in his early twenties, inherited his uncle’s anatomy school. He also eventually had one of the most lucrative medical practices in London and, by 1799, was physician to King George III. Baillie’s book, The Morbid Anatomy, is based on his observations of “preparations of morbid appearances” collected by others as well as his exposure to dead bodies from teaching anatomy and by working at the large St. George’s Hospital.

Baillie’s book, originally published in 1793, is the first to introduce pathology as an independent science and the first to discuss organ systems methodically. In his preface Baillie recognizes that,

The natural structure of the different parts of the human body has been very minutely examined, so that anatomy may be said to have arrived at a high pitch of perfection; but our knowledge of the changes of structure produced by disease, which may be called the Morbid Anatomy, is still very imperfect.

Baillie then states that he will give a logically arranged account of the morbid structural changes that can occur in the thoracic and abdominal organs, the urogenital system, and the brain.

The Morbid Anatomy has landmark accounts of gastric ulcers; pulmonary lesions of tuberculosis; ovarian cysts; and pulmonary emphysema, including a description of a lung that was probably from the body of the English author Dr. Samuel Johnson. (One Hundred Books 189)

Baillie also discusses cirrhosis of the liver. He writes,

One of the most common diseases in the liver (and perhaps the most common, except the adhesions which we have lately described) is the formation of tubercles in its substance. This disease is hardly ever met with in a very young person, but frequently takes place in persons of middle or advanced age: it is likewise more common in men than women. This would seem to depend upon the habit of drinking being more common in the one sex than in the other; for this disease is most frequently found in hard drinkers; although we cannot see any necessary connection between that mode of life and this particular disease in the liver.

next author: John Bell (1763-1820).

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Thomae Bartholini Anatome ex omnium veterum recentiorumque observationibus…. Lugduni Batavorum: Ex officina Hackiana, 1673. Fulltext online

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium….

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium….

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium…. Each illustration has an accompanying text.

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium….

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium….

Thomas Bartholin, …Anatome ex omnium….

Born into a Danish family of physicians, Thomas Bartholin became a doctor, theologian, and mathematician. He is best known for discovering the lymph vessel system in humans, following Harvey’s work on the circulation of blood. Bartholin was first to describe the thoracic duct in humans, shortly after Jean Pecquet recognized this duct in animals. Bartholin edited an anatomy text that his father wrote, and in the new edition, he recognized the work of two contemporary anatomists, Gasparo Aselli and William Harvey. During his lifetime Bartholin was considered by some to be the most important anatomist because of his fame as a teacher. Like his father he was a prolific writer, with several textbooks to his name, but many of his books were merely revisions of his father’s work.

next author: Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654).

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The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings. London: T.N. Longman and O. Rees [etc.], 1802. Fulltext online

A System of Operative Surgery, Founded on the Basis of Anatomy. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814.

Charles Bell, A System of Operative Surgery, Founded on the Basis of Anatomy. This two volume set is a treatise on general surgery, mainly from the anatomical viewpoint. The illustrations are by Bell and include a series of plates on gunshot wounds.

Charles Bell, The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings. Of the 12 plates in this volume, 11 are beautifully printed in color.

Charles Bell, A Series of Engravings, Explaining the Course of the Nerves. This illustration, drawn by Bell, shows the nerves of the neck.

Sir Charles Bell, like his older brother John, was born in Edinburgh. He worked in London for 30 years before returning to end his career as professor of surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Charles Bell was an expert surgeon and served in that capacity with the British army at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. His fame, however, rests on medical illustration and neurology. His most notable achievements are his description of the long thoracic nerve or “Bell’s nerve;” his discovery that a lesion of the seventh facial nerve causes facial paralysis, known as “Bell’s palsy;” and his demonstration of function in the spinal nerves: motor function relates to anterior roots and sensory function relates to dorsal roots, the “Bell-Magendie law.”

In his Advertisement at the beginning of The Anatomy of the Brain Bell states,

In the Brain the appearance is so peculiar, and so little capable of illustration from other parts of the body, the surfaces are so soft, and so easily destroyed by rude dissection, and it is so difficult to follow an abstract description merely, that this part of Anatomy cannot be studied without the help of Engravings.

This book vividly shows both the descriptive and artistic abilities of Bell.

Charles Bell is considered a pioneer in the study of the human nervous system. Bound with The Anatomy of the Brain is his work entitled, A Series of Engravings, Explaining the Course of the Nerves.

next author: René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1825).

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Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints…. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme…and T. Cadell and W. Davies…, 1810. Fulltext online

The Principles of Surgery. New-York: Printed and sold by Collins and Perkins, 1810. Fulltext available through America’s Historical Imprints (UVa access only)

John Bell, Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints…. In his preface Bell states that he hopes whatever was lost in elegance in his engravings was gained in accuracy.

John Bell, Engravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints…. “…the body should be laid out as he is to order it in dissection…”

John Bell, The Principles of Surgery. Our book is an abridgement of Bell’s three-volume set, one of his most lasting contributions to surgery. This illustration is in the chapter on “Fractures of the Scull with Depression.”

A noted anatomist and surgeon born in Edinburgh, John Bell gave private lectures on anatomy, primarily to surgeons. Eventually his sessions became so well attended that he built a school to accommodate the classes that he taught for 13 years before concentrating on his studies and large surgical practice. Bell’s books are thorough in reviewing both historical and contemporary treatment and incorporating clinical examples. He was particularly interested in the surgery of blood vessels and was the first to ligate or tie the gluteal artery.

John Bell believed that the artist and the anatomist were often at odds: the artist focused on elegance while the anatomist maintained accuracy and ensured utility. He settled this conflict by doing much of the artistic labor himself. In the Preface to Engravings of the Bones, Muscles and Joints he writes, “I have drawn my plates with my own hand. I have engraved some of these plates, and etched almost the whole of them.”

Bell also states in his Preface to Engravings of the Bones, Muscles and Joints that

…dissection is the first and last business of the student; and when drawings are made for his use, the body should be laid out as he is to order it in dissection; the belly should be displayed as he can display it in his subjects; an arm should be so drawn, that, when he dissects the arm of the subject, it may fall naturally upon the table exactly as he finds it in his book.

next author: Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842).

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Aetii medici graeci contractae ex veteribvs medicinae Tetrabiblos, hoc est qvaternio, id est libri uniuersales quatuor…. Basileae: Froben, 1542. Fulltext online

Aëtius of Amida, Aetii medici graeci contractae…. Front cover.

Aëtius of Amida, Aetii medici graeci contractae….

Aëtius of Amida, Aetii medici graeci contractae…. Dedication.

Aëtius of Amida was held in great esteem by Renaissance physicians and by the translator of this book, the renowned Janus Cornarius, who considered Aëtius the best of medical writers. Like Oribasius, Aëtius studied in Alexandria in the Byzantine period. His encyclopedia is basically a collection of excerpts from earlier writers, especially Galen.

next author: Alexander, of Tralles (ca. 525-ca. 605).

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