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Information from the Rare Book Room and around the world.

The latest updates from the Hardin Library Blog:

  • Anatomy, geology, and spirituality | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on July 23, 2025 at 5:41 pm

    It’s July and time for a beloved week in television: Shark Week. These sleek, weird, and beautiful apex predators are mesmerizing and also a little terrifying. But what do sharks have to do with medicine? Surprisingly, quite a bit—thanks to Elementorum myologiae specimen [A Sample of the Elements of Myology] (1667), a work by 17th-centuryContinue reading "Anatomy, geology, and spirituality | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • Benjamin Bell’s cancer treatise | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on July 3, 2025 at 6:31 pm

    Benjamin Bell (1749–1806), a pioneering Scottish surgeon and father of the Edinburgh school of surgery, authored A Treatise on the Hydrocele, on Sarcocele, or Cancer, and Other Diseases of the Testes (1791). Known for his rational, scientific approach to surgery, Bell also wrote the influential A System of Surgery (1783–1788). He was closely connected withContinue reading "Benjamin Bell’s cancer treatise | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • The invention of the stethoscope and a featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on June 18, 2025 at 7:42 pm

    This month, we highlight a book from the early 19th-century French physician who created the most iconic symbol of healthcare providers around the world. Assessing the condition of a patient in 1816, René Laënnec (1781–1826), rolled up a piece of paper to create a crude cone and proceeded to listen to the patient’s chest sounds.Continue reading "The invention of the stethoscope and a featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • Vegetable materia medica of the US | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on June 9, 2025 at 9:22 pm

    We present William Paul Crillon Barton’s (1786–1856) masterwork, Vegetable materia medica of the United States (1817–1818). Barton was a well-known naval surgeon, medical botanist, artist, and professor. He was born on Nov. 17, 1786, in Philadelphia, to a family filled with people who made important contributions to every aspect of the early United States. BartonContinue reading "Vegetable materia medica of the US | featured book from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • New exhibition showcases recipes in the history of medicine

    by Damien Ihrig on April 16, 2025 at 5:49 pm

    Visit Hardin Library’s new exhibit on the third floor to explore how home remedies developed into pharmacology. Starting with folks in the 16th–19th centuries, whose ailment treatments came from a trusted authority figure and consisted of any number of substances applied in any number of ways, ranging from the helpful to the ineffectual, to theContinue reading "New exhibition showcases recipes in the history of medicine"

  • Pioneering female physican Aletta Jacobs | Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on March 27, 2025 at 7:53 pm

    This Women’s History Month, the John Martin Rare Book Room  highlights a book from the pioneering 19th-century Dutch physician and activist Aletta Jacobs. Born in 1854 in the Netherlands, Jacobs chafed at the status quo and the limited educational opportunities for women in the Netherlands. She rejected the standard for Dutch girls at the time, “finishing school,”Continue reading "Pioneering female physican Aletta Jacobs | Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • Notes on Johann Christian Reil, the first psychiatrist, from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Damien Ihrig on February 25, 2025 at 9:08 pm

    Reil, was an 18th-century medical multihyphenate: physician-anatomist-physiologist. He was also the first true psychiatrist by virtue of coining the term “psychiatry” (or “psychiatrie” in German). His contributions to anatomy include the first description of the arcuate fasciculus in 1809 and the identification of anatomical features such as Reil’s finger (later known as Raynaud syndrome) and the Islands of Reil in the cerebral cortex.Continue reading "Notes on Johann Christian Reil, the first psychiatrist, from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • Save the date for the John Martin Rare Book Room open house on April 24

    by Sarah Andrews on February 13, 2025 at 8:20 pm

    The annual John Martin Rare Book Room (JMRBR) open house will be on Thursday, April 24, 2025. All are invited to drop in from 5:30 to 8 p.m. to tour the space and explore staples of the JMRBR collection. There will also be special materials on display, such as John Gerard’s The herball and Brunschwig’sContinue reading "Save the date for the John Martin Rare Book Room open house on April 24"

Notes from the Rare Book Room:

An earlier series highlighting items from the collection.

  • Osteographia, The Anatomy of the Bones | April 2018 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on April 6, 2018 at 7:45 pm

    WILLIAM CHESELDEN (1688-1752). Osteographia; or, The anatomy of the bones. London: [n. publ.], 1733. Cheselden’s reputation as a teacher, clinician, and anatomist was well established during his lifetime, and he won great distinction in London’s hospitals. His work on human anatomy went through thirteen editions and became a standard textbook. His Osteographia, with its magnificent plates depictingContinue reading "Osteographia, The Anatomy of the Bones | April 2018 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • November 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room | Ars moriendi = The Art of Dying

    by Sarah Andrews on November 27, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Ars moriendi. [Cologne, Heinrich Quentell, c. 1495] Although the author of Ars moriendi is not known, the book is believed to have been written in Southern Germany at the time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). Ars moriendi, or The art of dying, was intended to instruct the reader on the proper modes of behaviorContinue reading "November 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room | Ars moriendi = The Art of Dying"

  • Paracelsus, father of toxicology | October 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on October 23, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    PARACELSUS (1493-1541). Opera, Bücher und Schrifften. Strasbourg: In Verlegung L. Zetzners seligen Erben, 1616. Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim is universally known as Paracelsus. He was born in Switzerland and educated at Basel. Paracelsus unorthodox ideas and teachings put him in conflict with the orthodox establishment of his revolutionary time and he spent most of hisContinue reading "Paracelsus, father of toxicology | October 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • The Black Death: The Plague, 1331-1770 The Black Death: The Plague, 1331-1770 | online exhibit from The John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on May 22, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    The March, 2013 John Martin Rare Book Room open house featured books and art on The Plague. Alice M. Phillips edited the original exhibit materials and designed an online exhibit: The Black Death.    

  • Pietro D’Abano | February 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on February 3, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    PIETRO d’ABANO (1250-1315?). Conciliator differentiarum philosophorum et medicorum. Venice: Gabriele di Pietro, for Thomas de Tarvisio, 1476. Pietro d’Abano was an influential man of his time. A Paduan physician, philospher and astrologer, he was in demand for lectures and teaching.  Dante was among his pupils. For his heretical views he ran afoul of the Inquisition, but diedContinue reading "Pietro D’Abano | February 2017 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • The birth of mankinde , othwise named the woman’s booke | December 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on December 6, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    EUCHARIUS RÖSSLIN (d. 1526). The birth of mankinde, otherwise named the woman’s booke. Set foorth in English by Thomas Raynalde. London: Thomas Adams, [1604]. Based on the Latin version, De partu hominis was translated and published by Richard Jonas (fl. 1540).  The next English edition to appear was published by Thomas Raynalde. Raynalde borrowed freelyContinue reading "The birth of mankinde , othwise named the woman’s booke | December 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • Francis Glisson | Anatomia Hepatis | November 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on November 4, 2016 at 10:51 pm

    FRANCIS GLISSON (1597-1677). Anatomia hepatis. London: Typis DuGardianis, 1654. Glisson was a graduate of Cambridge and Regius professor of physic there for more than forty years, although he was almost never in residence, as he carried on a busy medical practice in London. Glisson was a founder of the Royal Society and one-time president ofContinue reading "Francis Glisson | Anatomia Hepatis | November 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • Vieussens, Neurographia Universalis | October 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room

    by Sarah Andrews on October 13, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    RAYMOND VIEUSSENS (1641-1715?). Neurographia universalis. Lyons: Apud Joannem Certe, 1685 The son of a French army officer, Vieussens provided his own support, studying philosophy at Rhodez and medicine at Montpellier. As physician to the hospital of Saint Eloy in Montpellier,performed over five hundred postmortem examinations.  He made a number of anatomical discoveries during these exams. ThisContinue reading "Vieussens, Neurographia Universalis | October 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room"

  • AVICENNA | September 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on September 6, 2016 at 10:14 pm

    AVICENNA (980-1037). Canon medicinae. 4 vols. in 3. Lyons: Johannes Trechsel, completed by Johannes Clein, 1498. Known in the Persian world as the Chief or the Second Doctor (Aristotle having been the first), Avicenna (Arabic Ibn Sīnā) was an accomplished physician as well as a noted philosopher. He wrote widely on theology, metaphysics, astronomy, philosophy, law,Continue reading "AVICENNA | September 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"

  • Andrés de Laguna de Laguna | August 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library

    by Sarah Andrews on August 1, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    ANDRES DE LAGUNA (1499-1560). Anatomica methodus, seu De sectione humani corporis contemplatio. Paris: Apud Ludovicum Cyaneum, 1535.  Laguna, a native of Segovia, Spain, began his education in medicine at Paris in 1532. While in Paris he published his first three books and became acquainted with Vesalius. By 1539,  Laguna published over 30 books, many on medical botany–oneContinue reading "Andrés de Laguna de Laguna | August 2016 Notes from the John Martin Rare Book Room @Hardin Library"