June 11, 2025, by Chloe

Art, Antidotes and Anatomy

Founded in 1828, The Nottingham Medico-Chirurgical Book Society is believed to be the second oldest medical society in the UK. The well over 1000 books which made up its library, today held at Manuscripts and Special Collections, stretch back even further, into the mid-15th century. As you might imagine, within their pages you can find everything from the obscure and macabre to the origins of major medical advances. However, many of the books are exceptional in another, more unexpected regard: their artistic quality.  

The oldest book in the collection, an edition of the ‘Opera Omnia’, or ‘Complete Works’ of Galen published in Basel in 1538, is a prime example: the opening of each section is marked by a woodcut initial letter designed by none other than Hans Holbein the Younger. Although Holbein is best known today for his majestic portraits of members of the Tudor dynasty, he also made a significant contribution to the development of book design, having been employed by Basel-based publisher Johann Froben to create ornamental alphabets for Greek and Latin texts.  

Woodcut initial from Galeni Pergameni sumni simper viri…opera omnia.. Edited by L. Fuchs, J. Camerarius, H. Gemusaeus et al, Vol I, p.8; 1538. Med Chi Over.X WZ220.G4

Although Galen had died over 1300 years before this publication, he remained a dominant authority over medical thought until the 17th century, when his remedies began to be challenged by the rise of the scientific method, which prioritised observation and experimentation over accepting the authority of canonical authors.  

One such innovative thinker was physician, anatomist and physiologist Thomas Willis, who was Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford from 1660-1675. He emphasised the importance of careful clinical observation in his practice, going on to be the first to describe several diseases. He wrote prolifically, and following his death in 1675, a number of compilations of his works were published, such as the 1684 volume pictured above. This volume, like many editions of Willis’ works, features copperplates drawn by Christopher Wren. These images have a significance beyond the decorative: Willis himself acknowledged that his findings regarding the structure of the brain and nervous system were so acclaimed in no small part due to Wren’s intricate rendering.  

Engraving of the human brain from ‘Dr Willis’s practice of physick, being the whole works of that renowned and famous physician’, translated by S. Pordage, page 44; 1684

A similar physician-artist collaboration would prove similarly fruitful in the following century, when Dutch anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus commissioned engraver Jan Wandelaar to create a large-form atlas of human anatomy. To increase the scientific accuracy of anatomical illustration, they devised a technique of placing square webbing at intervals between the artist and the specimen and copying the images using the grid patterns.  On publication, Tabulae was criticized for the whimsical backgrounds added to many of the pieces by Wandelaar, but Albinus doubled down on this creative choice, employing the engraver to add an image of Clara, a famous rhinoceros then living in Leiden (where the anatomist was a professor) to the 1749 edition published in London.  

Engraving showing the bones and musculature of the human body, from ‘Tables of the skeleton and muscles of the human body by Bernhard Siegfried Albinus’; 1749. Med Chi. Over.XX WE17 ALB.

Another early-modern medical man who embraced hand-on methods was French barber-surgeon Ambroise Paré (c.1510-1590), who, from 1536 onwards, served as a surgeon in the French army and later became surgeon general to four successive French monarchs. He revolutionised the treatment of wounds, preferring a soothing salve to boiling oil, and ligation of arteries instead of cauterization. His experiences in the military clearly had a huge impact on his practice, as emphasised in this 1691 English translation, which includes a wide variety of illustrations ranging from how to restore dislocated body parts to detailed diagrams of prosthetic limbs.  

Drawing of a prosthetic hand from ‘The works of Ambrose Parey, in which are contained an introduction to chirurgery in general: a discourse on animals, and of the excellency of man: the anatomy of man’s body’, p.532; 1691. Med Chi. WZ240.P25.

Did you know that books mentioned in this blog are available to view in the Manuscripts and Special Collections reading room? To book your appointment, please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk. 

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