Illustrations from the Wellcome Library William Winstanley's pestilential poesies in "The Christians refuge: or heavenly antidotes against the plague in this time of generall contagion to which is added the charitable physician (1665)".
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During the Great Plague of London (1665), William Winstanley veered from his better known roles as arbiter of success and failure in his works of biography or as a comic author under the pseudonym Poor Robin, and instead engaged with his reading audience as a plague writer in the rare book The Christians Refuge: Or Heavenly Antidotes Against the Plague in this Time of Generall Contagion to Which is Added the Charitable Physician (1665). From its extensive paratexts, including a table of mortality statistics and woodcut of king death, to its temporal and providential interpretation of the disease between the covers of a single text, The Christians Refuge is a compendium of contemporary understanding of plague. This article addresses The Christians Refuge as an expression of London's print marketplace in a moment of transformation precipitated by the epidemic. The author considers the paratextual elements in The Christians Refuge that engage with the presiding norms in plague writing and publishing in 1665 and also explores how Winstanley's authorship is expressed in the work. Winstanley has long been seen as a biographer or as a humour writer; attributing The Christians Refuge extends and challenges previous perceptions of his work. (+info)
Wormholes record species history in space and time.
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Provenance is defined as the record of a book's ownership history. Its value and uses are explored. A survey of provenance practices in medical school rare book libraries found that only 21% of the reporting libraries maintain this important file. Examples of the uses and value of a provenance file in a medical rare book collection are presented. Decisions necessary to institute and maintain such a file are outlined and discussed. (+info)
Collecting for the history of medicine.
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Value of books depends on their place in the collection, and it is not suggested that the librarian become an expert in the prices of rare books. The dealer should be trusted as an adviser. The same is true about disposal of rare books. An account is given of earlier practice at the New York Academy of Medicine Library in the acquisition of rare books, and some notable items are listed. The importance of pamphlets, reprints, and annual reports is discussed. Building a collection of the institution's own records is commended, and various examples given of how an unbalanced or inappropriate collection loses its value. Good examples of special subject collections are quoted. Care and preservation of rare material are discussed. (+info)
The Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh: sale of its library at Sotheby's.
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The library of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, which has been in existence for nearly 250 years, was sold by Sotheby & Co. of London at three auction sales during 1969. The author describes her attendance at the three sales, with emphasis on the most valuable items sold and the considerable acquisitions made for the Middleton Medical Library of the University of Wisconsin. Concluding observations concern some of the practical problems of acquiring antiquarian books at auction. (+info)
Investing in rare books and manuscripts.
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The lecture treats the rapidly escalating values of rare books and manuscripts both as financial and as scholarly investments. The text suggests new areas for collecting which may be pursued in today's market with an eye to an increasing intellectual and monetary return. (+info)
An examination of characteristics related to success of friends groups in medical school rare book libraries.
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Friends of the library groups traditionally have been considered effective sources of funding for libraries. Empirical evidence was sought to determine the accuracy of this belief for medical rare book libraries. Characteristics of the medical rare book library and of the friends group were examined to identify those which are correlated with successful friends groups. Correlations were found between the amount of money contributed by the friends group and the age of the friends group, the librarian's participation in forming the group, and the amount of money spent by the library on the friends group. Recommendations are made toward a goal of larger donations from friends groups of medical rare book libraries and toward more effective management of those funds. (+info)
A very special Osler inscription.
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In the Rare Books Room of the Mayo Clinic Library is a book, Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici, which may contain the earliest extant book inscription penned by Sir William Osler. Dr. John Graner reports that Osler gave the book to one of his closest friends when he attended McGill medical school in 1870. Not only does the book possess great historic value, says Graner, but also it symbolizes a unique friendship. (+info)