History of Medical Illustration, from Antiquity to 1600 – Robert Herrlinger 1970

History of Medical Illustration, from Antiquity to 1600 by Robert Herrlinger, published by Editions Medicina Rara Ltd., 1970 is a landmark scholarly work that traces the visual representation of medical knowledge from ancient civilizations through the Renaissance . This authoritative volume was translated from the original German edition, Geschichte der medizinischen Abbildung. 1. Von der Antike bis um 1600, by Graham Fulton-Smith and includes a preface by F.N.L. Poynter, the distinguished director of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine.

Herrlinger, who was both a respected medical historian and an accomplished art historian, brought a unique interdisciplinary perspective to this study . The work ranges across the medical traditions of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Hellenic Greece and Rome, the Islamic world, and medieval Europe before culminating in the extraordinary achievements of the sixteenth century. Particular attention is devoted to the anatomical illustrations of Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius, with nearly thirty pages examining the development and influence of Vesalius and his contemporaries including Berengario, Dryander, Estienne, Eustachio, and Valverde.

The physical volume itself is a handsome large quarto and spanning 178 pages . It is profusely illustrated with nearly four hundred illustrations, many beautifully reproduced in color, including facsimiles of rare manuscripts and early printed books . The contents explore diverse subjects including the five-figure series, surgical scenes, obstetrical imagery, venesection figures, “wound-men,” cauterization scenes, urinalysis illustrations, materia medica, and the symbolic representation of illness through couches and beds.

Originally conceived as the first volume of a two-volume series intended to extend to the present day, the work remained incomplete due to Herrlinger’s premature death in 1968 . A second volume, edited by Marielene Putscher and extending the coverage closer to the time of publication, appeared in Germany between 1967 and 1972 but was never translated into English. The 1970 English edition was published simultaneously in London by Pitman Medical and in New York by Editions Medicina Rara, with copies held in major medical historical collections worldwide including the Wellcome Collection, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.