Tag: early printed books

The preservation of health and prevention of illness were major preoccupations in the ancient, medieval and early modern worlds. Since medical intervention to combat sickness could be both expensive and dangerous, it was preferable to take steps to avoid becoming… Continue reading

On Friday 20 May 2016 the Wellcome Library will host a one-day workshop on incunabula and medicine. This event will reflect broadly on the relationship between the earliest printed books and medicine. Topics will include: medical illustration in incunabula; the… Continue reading

John Dee (1527–1609) was a true Renaissance polymath. He pursued many different branches of learning, including medicine. The current Royal College of Physicians (RCP) exhibition, ‘Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee’, explores Dee’s life and legacy through… Continue reading

Almanacs have a long association with medicine. Potted health advice lent itself to inclusion in the sort of cheap booklets for a mass market that proliferated under the name ‘Almanack’ from the 16th century onwards. But what exactly is an… Continue reading

The second seminar in the 2015–16 History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series takes place on Tuesday 27th October. Speaker: Dr Gabriella Zuccolin (University of Cambridge) Women’s medicine between script and print, c. 1450–1600 Abstract: By 1600 only a few gynaecological texts written in Latin… Continue reading

The Great Plague that afflicted London 350 years ago (1665–66) had a dramatic impact on the city, killing up to 100,000 people of a population that then numbered about 460,000. There was a plethora of printed responses to this plague… Continue reading

The History of Pre-Modern Medicine seminar series returns this autumn. The 2015–16 series – organised by a group of historians of medicine based at London universities and hosted by the Wellcome Library – will commence with four seminars in the… Continue reading

Why do we often sign and date our books when we acquire them? It is not surely for fear that we will lose them and thus to ensure their safe return. Rather, it is to mark their place in our… Continue reading

Among the medieval manuscripts held by the Wellcome Library, some, such as MS. 49, have survived through time thanks to their status as beautiful objects. Others are less impressive at first sight. MS. 335, a miscellany of medical and religious… Continue reading

Ed Thornton draws on the Library’s original publications by René Descartes (1596–1650) to discover what the French polymath’s adage “I think therefore I am” can tell us about what it means to be a thinking thing in a physical world.… Continue reading