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Boerhaave: Author and Editor* Boerhaave: Author and Editor* Amsterdam, The Nefherlands ABSTRACT professional skill, but also with his human reac- The many facets of Herman Boerhaave's life are tions, thus approaching his personality (2). presented. He was a renowned teacher, physician, author, and editor. Discussed here are his activities as cataloger of the Vossius Collection, author of books on chemistry, botany, and medicine, and as In his student years Boerhaave became initi- editor of works by Vesalius and early Greek medi- ated into the secrets of Leyden University Li- cal writers. Printing and bookselling in hiden dur- brary and intimately acquainted with one of its ing Boerhaave's era are described. future treasures (see Fig. 1-2). From its foundation in 1575 as a reward for HERMANBoerhaave's name is familiar to a courageous defense against the long siege by everyone managing a library for the history of Spaniards, who were only driven away by water medicine. Copies of books bearing his name on pouring in through severed dikes, the trustees of the title page are still extant in great numbers in the Academy, called Curators, had shown a far- many libraries. It is a challenge for me to ap- seeing eye for the real interests of the School. proach the most famous eighteenth century A library was furnished very early in a spacious physician and teacher of medicine from the side room of the former Mantle-Beguine Church of his relations to books, libraries, and publish- (Faliede Bagijn Kerk). The very first book of ers. the library was a magnificent Bible in four lan- Thousands and thousands of books went guages, printed by the famous Plantijn. The through his hands, books of theology, philoso- volume was a gift of William of Orange (3). phy, physics, biology, anatomy, botany, chemis- One of the professors was superintendent of try, and medicine. Certainly no day passed with- the library. It was open for students twice a out his reading in several books. The content week, on Wednesday and on Saturday from two was the main thing, but he had also a keen sense until four o'clock in the afternoons. This ar- for the appearance of books, and for the mak- rangement for visitors to see the books was ing of beautiful books. Though he was, in the much appreciated by the students. strict sense, not a bibliographer or a bibliophile, In 1691 some structural alterations were he certainly possessed some affinity for them made to the library, as a third long, double both. book case had to be set up in the middle of the Boerhaave wrote many books, but he also room. Curators now designated the twenty-three edited several important scientific works; more- year old Boerhaave, who, in the year before, over, he is the unwilling ancestor of a numerous had taken his degree in philosophy, as an as- family of books that were stolen from his lec- sistant to the "custos" in carrying out this work. tures, adapted from his works, or inspired by In this period he received a still more important his teaching. commitment when he was charged with check- In my Bibliographiu Boerhaaviana (1) some ing the famous Vossius book collection the Uni- 600 items are registered, but already some edi- versity had bought. tions are known to be lacking. This family of books reflects Boerhaave's activities as an author and editor. In considering them we become fa- Isaac Vossius (1618-1689), son of a well- miliar not only with his scientific interests and known Amsterdam professor Gerard Vossius, "Address given at a Meeting of the Countway was a scholar with a passion for rare books and Library Associates, Boston, April 27, 1971. old manuscripts which he collected on his trav- Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 62(2) April I974 137 G. A. LINDEBOOM FIG. 1. The Leiden University Library in the seventeenth century (after J. J. Orlers, 1641). els in foreign countries. Having been in the ser- This work was entrusted to and skillfully per- vice of Queen Christina of Sweden (1648-54) formed by Boerhaave. Regrettably so many dis- he settled in England. He became a well-known crepancies came to light that the Leiden Cura- theologian and even was appointed canon of tors, being annoyed, began a lawsuit zgainst the Windsor. When he died, in England, in 1689, heirs of Vossius. The case lasted no less than he left a big collection of books and costly man- fourteen years, and a settlement was not reached uscripts some of which he seems to have taken until 1704. The documents of the lawsuit, from the possession of the Swedish Queen in bound in six volumes, are still extant in the exchange for back pay! Archives of the Curators. The heirs had a list made, and rather than ac- In the Vossius Collection the Library ac- cept the bids of Oxford and Cambridge, they quired a fine collection of valuable books and offered the library to Leiden University for a rare manuscripts several of which are now moderate but still considerable sum. In July worth more than the amount reluctantly paid by 1690 a price of 33,000 Dutch guilders was the Curators for Vossius's whole library. Boer- agreed upon. The books were transported to haave's merits were well acknowledged and an the house of the Dutch ambassador Van Citters allowance of 200 Dutch guilders was granted at London, and from there, packed in thirty- to him. four cases, shipped by the warship Reijgersbergh to Texel, and then to Leiden. The whole collection then had to be carefully During their studies all students had to de- cataloged and checked against the list upon fend theses (exercitii causa) in public disputa- which the bargain had been closed. tions. To qualify for graduation a small, printed 138 Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 62(2) April 1974 BOERHAAVE: AUTHOR AND EDITOR FIG. 2. The Leiden University Library in the eighteenth century. dissertation (pro gradu) had to be submitted. first of whom, coming from Antwerp, was ap- Gifted students sometimes were allowed to de- pointed in 1620. Abraham Elsevier was the last liver an academic oration. For these occurrences of the family of famous printers to serve as Wednesdays and Saturdays were reserved; no University printer. He did his job poorly, using lectures were given then. Theses and orations bad paper and worn-out types. His books were were printed by the University printers (4). expensive and often were not published by the As early as 1577 the University had its own scheduled date. printer, the typographus academicus. This offi- The printer's mark of the Elseviers (see fig. cial was obliged to keep a bookshop wherein the 3), a hermit under a tree and the device non books that had been shown at the market in sotus, is still used by the modern publishing Frankfort were kept. In 1582 the famous Chris- company of that name established in 1880. topher Plantijn (1514-1589) fled from Antwerp The Elseviers were only one of many book to Leiden where he established the first scientific printers at Leiden. In Boerhaave's time Leiden printing office in the Netherlands, the Oficina was full of books, bookshops, and printing Phntiniana (1 583-1 61 9). When he returned offices. Haller, who studied at Leiden in the to Antwerp in 1585, his son-in-law Franciscus years 1725-1727, noted in his diary "dass an Rafhelengius, professor of Hebrew, managed keinem Ort der Welt so vie1 Leute von Biichern the trade until his death in 1597 (5).Rafhelen- leben als in Leyden." The foremost of the Lei- gius printed the first books in Arabic in the den publishers at that time was Pieter van der Netherlands, and when the office was liqui- Aa (1659-1733), who for a long time acted as dated in 1619 the tradition of printing in orien- the official printer of city and University; he tal characters was not lost (6). even dared to publish a book at a price of 500 For nearly a century (1620-17 12) this office Dutch guilders (7).We owe to van der Aa a he was held by members of the Elsevier family, the engraving by A. von Bleiswijk showing Boer- Bull. Med. Libr. Assoc. 62(2) April I974 139 G. A. LINDEBOOM TABLE 1 UNIVFRS~TYPRWPRS AT LEIDEN I ( Officials ) 1577 - 60 Willem Silvius ( from Antwerp ) 1580 - 82 Caerel Silvius I I I I 1583 - 85 Christoffel Planteyn II 1585 - 97 Prof. Franc. Raphelengius ( his son-in-law ) 1597 - 1600 Christ. Raphelengius ( son of Franc. R. ) 1602 - 20 Jan Paedts 11 The Elseviers 1620 - 26 Isaac Elsevier 1626 - 52 Bonaventura and Abraham Elsevier 1653 - 54 Johannes and Daniel Elsevier 1654 - 61 Johannes Elsevier 1661 - 81 Eva van Alphen, widow of Daniel Elsevier 1681 - 1712 Abraham Elsevier ( I1 ) I11 ( by contract ) 1712 - 15 Jacob Poereep ( at the same time beadle ) 1715 - 30 Pieter van der Aa 1730 - 49 Samuel Luchtmans 1749 - 80 Samuel ( 4. 1780 ) and Johannes Luchtmans 1780 - 86 Johannes Luchtmans ( continued ) 1786 - ? Johannes ( cont. ) and his nephew Johannes Luchtmans haave presenting a formal address in the Grand but also by several others who were, of course, Auditory (see Fig. 4); it was inserted in Boer- eager to add his name to their lists. We do not haave's rectorial address (1715) printed by Van know much of his relations with his publish- der Aa (8). Not only is the orator wearing a hat, ers (9). but also, according to the custom in Holland at that time, and as a sign of freedom, the whole THE Institutes AND THE Aphorisms (of course, exclusively male) audience.
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