Blog – Page 23

Imperfecta: Fear, wonder, and science

Staff Happenings, In the museum January 17, 2017February 1, 2017Exhibits, History of medicine, Monsters, Science, Superstition, Teratology

On March 9, 2017, Imperfecta opens in the Mütter Museum, an exhibit curated by the staff of the Historical Medical Library, which will examine in text, image, and specimen how fear, wonder, and science shaped the understanding of abnormal human development.

One facet of this story is how people, laymen and scientists, reacted to new information in a time of discovery and upheaval. Steve Desch, an astrophysicist from the University of Arizona, said, “Humans have a strong instinct to ignore scientific findings, until those discoveries challenge the stories we tell each other about ourselves.” This tendency to ignore earth-shattering discoveries that fundamentally change how humans see themselves is a behavior that is as old as human existence itself. Read more

They don’t make pen-work like this anymore!

Staff #MedievalMonday January 16, 2017January 4, 2017Codicology, Constantinus Africanus, Decoration, Medieval manuscripts

Puzzle letter, f. 1r, Constantinus Africanus, *Viaticum*, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76

Pen-flourished initials (Latin littera florissae) like this one marked the beginning of a work, chapter, or other section. The most common colors used for these initials were red and blue. While this particular initial is not as elaborate as some, the red line-drawings inside almost resemble a seashell or something similar to my eyes.

“This WILL be on the test!”

Staff #MedievalMonday January 9, 2017October 30, 2018Codicology, Constantinus Africanus, Marginalia, Medieval manuscripts

Manicule, f. 68r, Constantinus Africanus, *Viaticum*, ca. 1220-1244, Z10 76

Welcome to #MedievalMonday! Every Monday, Chrissie Perella, Archivist, will be showing off one of the Library’s medieval manuscripts.

For the first installment of #MedievalMonday, meet Constantinus Africanus. Dated somewhere between 1220 and 1244, Constantinus was the oldest manuscript in our collection until several weeks ago (more on that in upcoming posts). The first text in this manuscript, Constantinus’ Viaticum, is one of the earliest examples of an Arabic medical text translated into Latin.

Constantinus Africanus was likely born in Carthage, and entered the monastery of Montecassino in southern Italy somewhere around 1060. His Viaticum is an important work in the history of medicine. He translated the Kitab Zad al-musafir wa-qut al-hadir (Provisions for the Traveler and the Nourishment of the Settled), written by the 10th-century Arabic physician known as Ibn al-Jazzar, sometime during the 11th century. It represents one of the earliest Western translations of an Arabic medical work, and demonstrates the revistalization of the flow of knowledge from the East to the West.

This codex illustrates many interesting aspects of medieval manuscripts. One of my personal favorite features is this manicule (f. 68r). Manicules were used as markers to denote parts of the text readers found important. This one is especially interesting as it has fingernails and a sleeve cuff.

Making the Medieval Digital

Staff Digital humanities, Education and outreach, Out of the stacks, Staff projects December 19, 2016April 22, 2019BiblioPhilly, Codicology, Digitization, History of medicine, History of the book, Medieval manuscripts, Paleography

“If [medieval] culture is regarded as a response to the environment then the elements in that environment to which it responded most vigorously were manuscripts.”

– C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Composite Medical Miscellany I. England, 15th century. Call number 10a 215.

The Historical Medical Library, as part of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL), is participating in a CLIR grant to digitize Western medieval and early modern manuscripts held by libraries in the greater Philadelphia area. The Library is lending thirteen medical manuscripts dating from c. 1220 to 1600 to this project, called Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis (BiblioPhilly). Our manuscripts will be digitized at the University of Pennsylvania’s Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Images (SCETI) and the digital images hosted through the University of Pennyslvania’s OPenn manuscript portal and dark-archived at Lehigh University.

The Battle Creek Sanitarium: Constructing History Through Ephemera

Tristan Dahn Out of the stacks, Staff projects November 22, 2016September 27, 2019Battle Creek Sanitarium, History of medicine, Medical trade ephemera, Primary sources

The Battle Creek Sanitarium of Battle Creek, Michigan was a health resort which employed holistic methods based on principles promoted by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Treatments included hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, phototherapy, physical training, exposure to fresh air, enemas, and dietetic plans crafted to lower patient’s libidos in order to live a chaste lifestyle free of sin. It became a destination for both prominent and middle-class American citizens, including celebrities such as J.C. Penney, Henry Ford, Amelia Earhart, Warren Harding, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Sojourner Truth. In order to draw so many prominent figures and a wealthy base of clients to its somewhat remote location in Michigan – and to promote the ideas of its founders, the Kellogg brothers – the Sanitarium needed to produce a wide swath of promotional materials, many of which survive today in The Historical Medical Library’s Medical Trade Ephemera collection.

Collections of Stones, Collections of Ideas

Staff From our researchers, In the museum, Out of the stacks November 3, 2016November 22, 2016Chemistry in medicine, History of medicine, John Syng Dorsey, Lithotomy, Urinary stones

– by Wood Institute travel grantee Dr. Edward Allen Driggers*

Historians take for granted the ways in which the profession produces knowledge. Usually historians construct a question from the historiography or primary sources that they encounter. I think occasionally, though, Clio speaks and we are inspired. I recently completed one of the most dynamic years of my life: my daughter was born into the world, I completed my Ph.D. in the history of science, and I completed my first year on faculty in the history department at Tennessee Technological University. My recent research trip to the Historical Medical Library at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia did the same thing for me that it did in 2014 under my first Wood Institute travel grant: it allowed me to be quiet and let the muse speak. It was inspiring.