Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 64-65. (Budapest, 1972)

TANULMÁNYOK - Vida Mária: A Ráday könyvtár orvostörténeti jelentősége a XVIII. században

or the new branch of pathological anatomy. The division of his library already reflected this differentiation to some extent, that is why works on the natural sciences and those on medicine fell into separate categories. Ráday recognized the historical significance of the "double renaissance" of medicine: first the age of the true renaissance starting with Vesalius, and later, from the middle of the 18th century onward, the emergence of the independent branches of medicine, parallel with enlightened thinking. That explains Ráday's special concern for acquisitions and his habit of employing scholars studying or having studied abroad. He did not take too much trouble to acquire first editions, in the case of classical and mediaeval authors he was content with translations made in the Kith century, or bought the famous anatomical work of Vesalius in its second edition prepared by Boerhaave. Among the classical and mediaeval authors his library possessed only the greatest ones: Hippocrates, Galen, Mesua, Avicenna, Ali Abbas, Constantine the African, Tertullian, Gordon, Villanovanus. The renaissance, which saw enormous progress in medicine and pharmacy, was already much better represented in the library: works by Vesalius, Benedetti de Legnano, Thomas Batholini, Paracelsus, Eustacchi, Falloppius, Cesalpino, Alpinus, Fernel, Fuchs, Gesner, and Agricola—all the important works of the 16th century. The new way of thinking of the 18th century was best reflected in the writings of Descartes, Boyle, Harvey, Leeuwenhoek, and also by Malpighius, Swammerdam, Mangetus, Borelli, Morison, Van Helmont, Lemery, Kircher, Sydenham, Stahl, Severino, Ruysch, etc. The end of this century saw the first medical-historical work which was more than a collection of biographies, Daniel Leclerc's "Historie de la Medicine". The 18th century is also noted for the systematization of scientific knowledge, where the greatest achievement was the French Encyclopaedia. The library had its second, Basle edition, together with other systematic handbooks: thesauri, herbaria. There were works by Linné, Boerhaave and his followers Haller and Van Swieten, the epoch-making Morgagni, together with such contemporary medical authors as Albinus, Hoffmann, Heister, Camper, Dillenius, Bidloo, Baume, Pitcarnius, Winslow, etc. In addition to physicians and polymaths the subject "medicina" included the works of other famous personalities which had some medical or biological bearing e. g. Medicinalium juxta propria principia and De sensu rerum et magia by Campanella (the latter under the heading natural science), and also letters by Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin or science and electricity respectively. Most of the books covered theology, then came belleslettres and literary history, the classics, and contemporary fiction, but the selection on medicine and science was of the greatest importance when viewed from the aspect of cultural history. The periodicals regularly arriving contained mainly book reviews, e. g. Commentarii de Rebus in Scientia Naturali et Mediana Gestis (Leipzig) which printed detailed reviews of the latest publications in medicine and the natural sciences. The volumes of the strictly medically orientated Der Arzt could also be found in the library. Besides the most important foreign publications Ráday acquired the works of Hungarian medical authors, too. First place was given to contemporary literature: István Weszprémi, Sámuel Dombi, Pál Szathmári Paksi, József Plenck, Sámuel Pátz, Sámuel Glósz, István Hatvani. There were rarities as well: Herbárium by Péter Méliusz Juhász (Kolozsvár, 1578), Anatomy by Jessenius (Wittenberg, 1601), a medico-historical work by János Sámboki (Antwerpen, 1615), the famous medical and other letters written in Hungary by the Italian Manardus, who was Royal Physician of Ulászló II and Lajos II (Basle, 1549), and the two most famous ency-