The Practical Art of Medicine: Dissection, Diagnosis and Disease in the Early Modern Period

27 October 2012 – 14 April 2013

Palace Green Library

The period between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries saw many advances in the study of anatomy, chemistry and physiology. Inspired by the collections of physician, historian and bibliophile Dr C. E. Kellett (1903-1978), this exhibition drew on collections from throughout the holdings of Palace Green Library, and included work by Jean Fernel, Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey. 

For Blood: William Harvey’s ground-breaking work on circulation. 

For Bile: Calendrier des Bergers for a theory of how the signs of the Zodiac caused ill-health by putting the body’s four humours out of balance. 

For Brains: incredible illustrations in Andreas Vesalius’s Fabrica. 

Visitors to the exhibition found out how medicine developed from ancient, entrenched theories to the knowledge of anatomy, method of diagnosis and nature of treatment more recognisable to us today.