This project involved ten research libraries in the UK and is focused on the history of medicine and related disciplines in the 19th and early 20th century. For more information please see our Online resources tab above, and the links below to the items digitised in the project.
UKMHL project homepage
Items submitted to the project from King's
The Rare Books Collection holds some 12,000 printed books ranging from a 1483 Venice printing of Silius Italicus’s Punica to first editions of the novels of Charles Dickens and the Left Book Club’s 1937 edition of Orwell’s The road to Wigan Pier, while the Early Science Collection’s holdings span the scientific achievements of the period 1801-1914, from Darwin to railway construction and from botany to cookery.
We also hold a number of other important scientific collections such as: the Wheatstone Collection, the former library of Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), pioneer of the electric telegraph; the De Beer Collection, which contains books, journals and pamphlets collected by Sir Gavin De Beer relating to Charles Darwin and evolution; the Stebbing Collection, the former library of the Rev. Thomas Roscoe Reed Stebbing (1835-1926), covering natural history in general but with a strong emphasis on marine invertebrates; the Ruggles Gates Collection which consists of the books and pamphlets of Professor Reginald Ruggles Gates (1882-1962), geneticist and botanist and is strong in anthropology, eugenics, genetics.
Literary collections include the Adam Collection, the former library of the literary journalist Miron Grindea (1909-95), who founded the Adam International Review; this contains copies of their works inscribed to Grindea by such major literary and artistic figures as Samuel Beckett, Marc Chagall and T.S. Eliot.
King's College London is traditionally strong in theology as an academic discipline and collections held at the Foyle Special Collections Library reflect the College's history and traditional strength in this area. The Library has extensive theological collections, including many Bibles, liturgical works, prayer-books, hymnals and works on sacred music, ranging in date from the late fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Important theological collections include the Box Collection, the former library of Canon George Herbert Box (1869-1933), which is strong in Judaica, Biblical history, Biblical commentary, and the languages, literature and history of the Middle East; the Rainbow Collection, part of the former library of Dr. Bernarr Rainbow (1914-1998), which contains Christian and Jewish hymnals and devotional music, the Ratcliff Collection, the former library of Canon Edward Craddock Ratcliff (1896-1967), former Professor of Liturgical Theology at King's, which is strong in the areas of Christian liturgy and Church history; the Relton Collection, the former library of Herbert Maurice Relton (1882-1971), former Professor of Dogmatic Theology at King's, the focus of which is on Christian dogmatic theology and ecclesiastical history.
List of incunabula
The Foyle Special Collections Library holds 17 incunabula, or books from the infancy of printing; the term is properly applied to works printed before 1501 and derives from the Latin term for swaddling clothes.
All are fully recorded on the Library catalogue and feature, with images, in our online exhibition on Incunabula
We have contributed to the Material Evidence in Incunabula project coordinated by the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) of which King's is a member. Full details of our incunabula appear on the project database, alongside those of thousands of other incunabula held by libraries around the world.
Our incunabula, ordered by date of publication:
Silius Italicus. Punica. Venice: Baptista de Tortis, 1483.
[Rare Books Collection FOL. PA6695.A2] ISTC 2nd edition: is00507000
The oldest book in our collection is this 1483 Venice edition of the epic Latin poem Punica, by Silius Italicus (ca 28-ca 103 AD). At over 12,000 lines, Punica is the longest Latin poem to survive from antiquity and tells the story of the Second Punic War. Our copy was acquired by King’s in 1961 as part of its purchase of the library of Petrus Johannes Enk, professor of Latin at the University of Groningen. Enk’s collection of over 7,000 volumes forms a significant component of our holdings in classical literature.
Paulus Florentinus. Breviarium totius juris canonici, sive, Decretorum breviarum. Memmingen: Albrecht Kunne, 1486. [Rare Books Collection Z239.5 K9 A7] ISTC 2nd edition: ip00180000
A copy of the third edition of a treatise on canon law, the first edition having been printed in Milan in 1479. This edition, printed in the Swabian town of Memmingen by Albrecht Kunne, has the distinction of being the first book containing a portrait of the author to be printed in Germany; our copy unfortunately lacks the first four leaves, including the portrait leaf.
Homer [Opera]. Greek. Florence: Bernardus Nerlius and Nerius Nerlius, 18 March 1487/88. [Rare Books Collection FOL. PA4018 A2] ISTC 2nd edition: ih00300000
The first printed edition of a major Greek work in its original language, comprising the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer. This editio princeps was edited by the Greek scholar Demetrius Chalcondylas. Presented to King's by Robert Hutton, Librarian from 1931 to 1958, it is bound in 18th century morocco, with gilt tooling.
Guglielmo da Saliceto. Summa conservationis et curationis. Venitiis imp[re]ssum: [Marinus Saracenus], [1489] [Guy's Hospital Medical Collection FOL. R127.5 DAS] ISTC 2nd edition: is00033000
The contributions of Guglielmo da Saliceto (1210-1276 or 7) to medicine were principally diagnostic. He recorded crepitus (the grating sensation when fractured surfaces rub together) as a sign of fracture, distinguished between arterial and venous bleeding and noted contralateral paralysis in skull wounds and the venereal origins of chancres and buboes.
In the days before Vesalius, when knowledge of human anatomy and physiology was sketchy, these conclusions cannot have been easy to reach.
Francesco Petrarca. Trionfi, sonetti e canzoni. Venice: Petrus de
Plasiis Cremonensis, dictus Veronensis, 1490. [Rare Books Collection FOL. PQ4477.A3 V4] ISTC 2nd edition: ip00386000
Petrarch's allegorical poems on the Roman ceremony of triumph, featuring the victorious returns of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity. Includes six full-page woodcuts at the beginning of each 'trionfo', other decorative features and commentaries. In a 19th century vellum binding, with a gilt-tooled red leather spine label, which was probably taken from an earlier binding.
Hortus sanitatis. Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, 1491. [St. Thomas's Hospital Medical Collection FOL. RS79 H67] ISTC 2nd edition: ih00486000
The last of the great medieval herbals to be published before Columbus’s discovery of America transformed European botanical knowledge, Hortus sanitatis (the Garden of Health) was printed in Mainz by Jacob Meydenbach, also thought to have been its compiler. It draws heavily on an earlier work, the Gart de Gesundheit, printed in Mainz by Peter Schoeffer in 1485, but also includes much additional material. Illustrated throughout with lively woodcuts (hand-coloured in this copy), it includes details of hundreds of plants, animals and minerals, and combines practical advice with folklore and legend.
Pietro d'Argelata. Cirurgie Petri de la Cerlata. Venice: [s.n.], 1492. [Guy's Hospital Medical Collection FOL. R127.5 DAS] ISTC 2nd edition: ia00952000
Pietro d'Argelata (d 1423) was an Italian surgeon who taught surgery at Bologna. He was one of the first to use sutures (stitching) and drainage tubes, and was also a competent dentist, although this was fairly common, as dentistry was not a separate profession at this time.
He was the most distinguished pupil of Guy de Chauliac’s pupils: Guy de Chauliac (ca 1300-68) was the most eminent surgeon of his day.
John of Gaddesden. Rosa Anglica practica medicine a capita ad pedes. Pavia: Franciscus Girardengus and Joannes Antonius Birreta, 24 January 1492 . [St. Thomas's Hospital Medical Collection FOL. R127.5 GAD] ISTC 2nd edition: ij00326000
Rosa Anglica is the first medical printed book to have been written by an Englishman. Thought by some commentators to be the inspiration behind the character of the physician in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, John of Gaddesden (1280?-1361) received his medical training at Oxford. Written in 1305-07, his treatise on medicine, generally known as Rosa Anglica, circulated widely in manuscript and later in printed form for the next 200 years, the 1492 Pavia edition represented in our collections being the editio princeps.
Hartmann Schedel. Liber chronicarum. (copy 1)
Hartmann Schedel. Liber chronicarum. (copy 2)
Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493. [Rare Books Collection OVERSIZE D17 N91] ISTC 2nd edition: is00307000
The Liber chronicarum, or Nuremberg chronicle, as it is also known, is a history of the world from a biblical perspective, written by the German humanist scholar Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514). This ‘biblical paraphrase’, encompassing a history of the world, is divided into seven ages with the first age dealing with Creation to the deluge and the final age covering the end of the world and the Last Judgement.
The book includes 1,809 woodcut images and is regarded as one of the finest illustrated books of the 15th century. The woodblock subjects would have been sketched in first and the text set to fit in the remaining space.
The two copies held differ considerably in format, as is described in the online exhibition referenced at the top of this panel.
Bible. Low German. 1494. De Biblie mit vlitigher achtinghe ... Mit vorluchtinghe vnde glose des hochghelerden Postillatoers Nicolai de Lyra ... Lübeck: Steffen Arndes, 1494. [Marsden Collection R2/6] ISTC 2nd edition: ib00638000
This Low German translation of the Bible is noted for its many fine woodcuts. It contains 97 large woodcuts, many of which are repeated to give a total of 152 illustrations. Two principal illustrators, both anonymous, have been identified, and the greater of the two, believed to be Flemish, is generally known as the Master of the Lübeck Bible. Our copy of the Lübeck Bible, which has a fine 16th century binding, formed part of the library of William Marsden (1754-1836), who gave his library to King’s in 1835.
Aristotle. Eis organon Aristotelous. Venice: dexteritate Aldus Manutius, 1495-1498. [Rare Books Collection FOL. PA3890.A2 M2] ISTC 2nd edition: ia00959000
The first printed edition of Aristotle’s collected works, in five volumes. Edited by Aldus Manutius and Scipione Forteguerri. The volumes are bound in 18th century mottled tree calf, with gilt tooling.
Thesaurus. Cornu copiae & Horti Adonidis. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1496. [Rare Books Collection FOL. PA253 T5] ISTC 2nd edition: it00158000
A collection of ancient grammarian texts in Greek. The combined work of various scholar-editors, including Aldus Manutius. Various bookplates and sale details are detailed on the catalogue record indicating provenances. In an 18th century English vellum binding.
Hortus sanitatis [Ortus sanitatis]. Strasbourg: Johann Prüss c.1497. [Rare Books Collection Harrod FOL. RS79 HOR] ISTC 2nd edition: ih00487000
Despite being rooted in a medieval system of knowledge that would shortly be supplanted by the scientific enquiry of the Renaissance, Hortus sanitatis was a publishing success and went through numerous editions in the 15th and 16th centuries. In our copy of this 1497 Strasbourg edition the woodcuts are largely uncoloured and at the end of the book is a treatise on urine, not present in our 1491 copy.
Pietro d'Argelata. Cirurgia magistri Petri de Largelata. Venice: per Bonetus Locatellus, 22 February 1497. [KCSMD Historical Collection FOL. RD30.VIG] ISTC 2nd edition: ia00953000
Second edition of Pietro d'Argelata's work on medicine and surgery, which is bound in leather with blind-tooled patterning. See biographical details for d'Argelata in an entry for his 1492 work above.
Bible. Latin. Vulgate. Biblia cum tabula nuper impressa [et] cum summariis nouiter editis. [Venice]: Simon Bevilacqua, 1498. [Rare Books Collection BS75 B4] ISTC 2nd edition: ib00603000
This Venetian edition of the Vulgate is illustrated with fine woodcuts. The printer, Simon Bevilacqua, re-used woodcuts from the 1490 edition of Niccolo Malermi’s Italian translation of the Vulgate.
Guy, de Chauliac. Chirurgia Guidonis de Cauliaco : De balneis porectanis ... Venice: per Simonem de Luere, 1499. [Guy's Hospital Medical Collection FOL. R127.5 CHA] ISTC 2nd edition: ig00559000
Guy de Chauliac (ca 1300-68) as mentioned above in the entry for Pietro d'Argelata, was the most eminent surgeon of his day. This book was written in 1363, and first printed in 1498.
His methods were comparatively advanced, and for this reason his expertise was much sought after by contemporary rulers, including three popes. He used this text to advocate new surgical techniques, including early excision of tumours, the treatment of fractures with slings and traction, and operations for hernia and cataract.
The importance of this work is reflected in the number of extant copies of this 1499 printing alone. The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue lists 50. It is also reflected in the copious contemporary annotations in this copy.