Matters of Life and Death: The Social and Cultural Conditions of the Rise of Anatomical Theatres,with Special Reference to Seventeenth Century Holland

E.g. the Journal litéraire, first published in 1717. See “Het Journal litéraire”, Documentatieblad Werkgroep Achttiende Eeuw, xviii, no. 71/72 (1986), 117–327.

Ornstein Martha , The role of scientific societies in the seventeenth century (New York, 1913). Cf. Sprat Thomas , The history of the Royal Society of London (London, 1667); Brown Harcourt , Scientific organizations in seventeenth century France (1620–1680) (Baltimore, 1934); Merton R. K. , Science, technology and society in seventeenth-century England (second edn, London, 1970); Hackmann W. D. , “The growth of science in the Netherlands in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries”, in Crosland Maurice (ed.), The emergence of science in Western Europe (London, 1975), 89–110.

In the charter of foundation of Leiden University is written: “Onvermidts dat eene alsoedanige schole ende Universiteyt nyet anders wezen en sal als een vast Blockhuys en bewaernissen der gantsschen Landen, en mede eenen onuerbrekelycken bandt der eenicheyt van den seluen, nyet alleen onder malcanderen, maer oyck met alle aanpalende provincien.” See Kroon J. E. , Bijdragen lot de geschiedenis van het geneeskundig onderwijs aan de Leidsche Universiteit 1575–1625 (Diss., Leiden, 1911), 112. Leiden made objections to the foundation of the first (Haarlem) learned society and prevented this society later on from becoming the Royal Academy.

E.g. van Berkel K. , In het voetspoor van Stevin (Meppel, 1985), 84–85.

Mijnhardt W. W. , Tot heil van het menschdom: Culturele genootschappen in Nederland, 1750–1815 (Amsterdam, 1988), 82–83, my translation.

Beeckman Isaac , Journal tenu par … de 1604 à 1634 , ed. by de Waard C. , i–ii (The Hague, 1939). van Berkel K. , Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) en de mechanisering van het wereldbeeld (Diss., Utrecht, 1983). Other examples of informal learned societies are the “Muiderkring” of the poet Hooft and the Leiden school for engineering.

In 1622 Amsterdam had about 105,000 inhabitants, Leiden 45,000 and Delft 23,000. Leiden and Delft are situated between Amsterdam and The Hague/Rotterdam.

See Richter Gottfried , Das anatomische Theater, Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und Naturwissenschaft Heft 16 (Berlin, 1936; reprinted 1977), 44.

Leiden even had two anatomical theatres for some time, one connected with the university, the other with the guild of surgeons. See Tiels Ch. , “De Leidse Chirurgijns en hun kamer boven de Waag”, Netherlands yearbook for history of art, xxxi (1980), 215–38. Of the other theatres in Dordrecht (1634; van Beverwyck J. lector an.), Arnhem, Haarlem, Middelburg, Kampen (see Thijssen E. H. M. , Nicolaas Tulp als geneeskundige geschetst: Eene Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde in de XXVIIde Eeuw (Diss., Amsterdam, 1881), 25), Rotterdam (see van Lieburg M. J. , “Het eerste theatrum anatomicum van Rotterdam 1642–1759”, Rotterdams Jaarboekje, 8e reeks, iv (1976), 210–27), Utrecht, Groningen and The Hague (see Endtz L. J. , De Hage-professoren, geschiedenis van een chirurgische school (Rotterdam, 1972)), only the one in The Hague was of some importance. Stalpert van der Wiel was a famous city doctor and praelector anatomiae. van der Wiel Cornelis Stalpert , Observationum rariorum medicorum anatomicorum chirurgicarum (2 vols, Leiden, 1687). In Dutch: Hondert seldzame Aanmerkingen (Amsterdam, 1682), Eerste deel van het tweede hondertgetal der zeldzame aanmerkingen … (The Hague, 1686). Anton Nuck who started his work on the use in anatomy of the injection of mercury into vessels in Delft, went to The Hague before he got a professorship in anatomy at Leiden. Nuck Anton , Adenographia curiosa et uteri foeminei anatome nova. Cum epistola ad amicum de inventis novis (Leiden, 1692). Govard Bidloo who worked in Amsterdam on his Anatomia became a professor of anatomy in The Hague before he got a scholarship in Leiden. Jacob van der Gracht published in 1634 in The Hague the first anatomy atlas for artists in the Netherlands.

At the university in Padua a hortus botanicus was established in 1545, a fixed anatomical theatre in 1594 and a public library in 1629. The theatre was designed by one of the successors of Andreas Vesalius, Girolamo Fabrizio d'Acquapendente. His wonderfully illustrated Tavole anatomiche are in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. See Premuda Loris , Storia dell'iconografia anatomica (Milan, 1957); and I secolo d'oro della Medicina: 700 anni do scienza medica a Padova (Modena, 1986), especially Antonia Maria Luyendijk-Elshout, “Instruzione superiora a Padova: Un riferimento per la Facoltà di Medicina di Leida (1675–1625)”, 79–84.

de Graaf Reinier (Regnerus) , Opera omnia (Leiden, 1677). In Dutch: Alle de wercken, so in de ontleedkunde als andere deelen der medicynen (Amsterdam, 1686). The collected letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (10 vols, Amsterdam, 1939–79). van Horne Johannes , Microcosmos seu brevis manuductio ad historiam corporis humani (Leiden, 1660). Sylvius Franciscus Deleboe , Opera medica (Amsterdam, 1630; 2nd edn, 1679; 3rd edn, 1695). Boerhaave Hermanus and Albinus Bernardus S. , Andreae Vesalii, invictissimi Caroli V. Imperatoris medici, opera omnia anatomica & chirurgia , i–ii (Leiden, 1725). Petreus Tulp(ius) Nicolaus , Observationum medicarum (Amsterdam, 1641); later (enlarged) editions, Observationes medicae (Amsterdam, 1652, 1672, 1685, 1716). Ruysch Frederik , Opera omnia anatomica-medico-chirurgica (5 vols, Amsterdam, 1737); in Dutch: Alle de ontleed- genees- en heelkundige werken (3 vols, Amsterdam 1744). Swammerdam Jan , Tractatus physico-anat.-medicus de respiratione usuque pulmonum (Leiden, 1667). Idem, Historia insectorum generalis (Leiden, 1669). Idem, Miraculum naturae, sive uteri muliebris fabrica, etc. (Leiden, 1672). Idem, Ephemeri vita of afbeeldingh van 's menschen leven, vertoont in de wonderbaarlijcke en nooyt gehoorde historie van het vliegent ende een-dagh-levent haft of oever-aas (Leiden, 1675). Idem, Biblia naturae (Bijbel der Natuure) , edited by Boerhaave H. and Gaudius H. D. (3 vols, Leiden, 1737, 1738).

Rembrandt's painting “The anatomy lesson of Dr Tulp” (1632) is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Bidloo Govard , Anatomia humani corporis, centum et quinque tabulis per artificiosissimum G. de Lairesse ad vivum delineatis illustrata (Amsterdam, 1685). In Dutch: Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams. Gedaan en beschreeven door Govard Bidloo. Uitgebeeld, naar het leeven, in honderd en vijf aftekeningen, door de heer Gerard de Lairesse (Amsterdam, 1690). In the Dutch edition Bidloo's inaugural lecture of 1688 in The Hague is included as an introduction. Ruysch Frederik , Museum Anatomicum Ruyschianum sive catalogus rariorum (Amsterdam, 1691; 2nd edn, 1721; 3rd edn, 1737). Ruysch Frederik , Thesaurus anatomicus (10 vols, Amsterdam, 1702–16).

Important literature in this field is: Farrington B. , “The last chapter of the De fabrica of Vesalius”, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, xx (1932), 1–14; Cole F. J. , A history of comparative anatomy: From Aristotle to the eighteenth century (London, 1944); Singer Charles , Vesalius on the human brain (London, 1952); Hekscher W. S. , Rembrandt's Anatomy of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp: An iconological study (New York, 1958); O'Malley C. D. , Andreas Vesalius of Brussels (Los Angeles, 1964), 1–20, including a translation of the Preface of the Fabrica of Vesalius of 1543, 317–24; Foucault Michel , The birth of the clinic (Paris, 1973); de Vries A. B. , Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis (Alphen aan de Rijn, 1978), 94ff.; Bylebyl Jerome J. , “The school of Padua: Humanistic medicine in the sixteenth century”, in Webster Charles (ed.), Health, medicine and mortality in the sixteenth century (London, 1979), 335–70; Hodges D. L. , Renaissance fictions of anatomy (Amherst, 1985).

Farrington , “The last chapter” (ref. 12), 1.

For ages people had used translations (in Latin) of translations (in Arabic) of the classical Greek texts, and Latin translations of original Arabic texts. The Greek texts moreover were edited mostly in terms of a commentary, the so-called ‘articella’. See Jones Peter Murray , Medieval medical miniatures (London, 1984), 23–24. The reading of the lector during the dissections was partly purely symbolic. One can say that it was a general attitude of the new scientists to believe not what was written, but only observations. Simon Stevin thought that the observations on which the classical works were based, were lost. See Stevin Simon , De Wysentyt (1608); The Age of the Sages , in The principal works of Simon Stevin, i–v (Amsterdam, 1955–66), iii, 593.

Vesalius Andreas , Epistola de radicis chynae decocto (Basel, 1546). In Dutch: Brief behelzende de aanwending van het decoct van chynawortel, Opuscula selecta neerlandicorum de arte medica, iii (Amsterdam, 1915). See here, Brief chynawortel, 70.

Rupke Nicolaas A. (ed.), Vivisection in historical perspective (London, 1987), 16. Guerrini Anita , “The ethics of animal experimentation in seventeenth-century England”, Journal of the history of ideas, 1 (1989), 3, 391–407.

Richter , Anatomische Theater (ref. 8), 14, 28–29. Part of the provision for the Incorporation of the Barber-Surgeons of Edinburgh by the Town Council in 1505 was the grant of a body for dissection once a year. Amsterdam got in 1555 from Philip II the prerogatives to have yearly a public anatomical demonstration on an executed criminal. See de Vries , Rembrandt (ref. 12), 94.

See Richter , Anatomische Theater (ref. 8), 26–27.

Hekscher , Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), 182–3. The translation by Hekscher of “installed” instead of “temporary” gives the wrong impression that the theatre was already permanent. See Richter , op. cit. (ref. 8), 24.

See Underwood E. Ashworth , “The early teaching of anatomy at Padua with special reference to a model of the Padua anatomical theatre”, Annals of science, xix (1963), 1–26; Witkam H. J. , Iets over Pieter Paaw en zijn Theatrum Anatomicum en over het bouwen van de anatomieplaats en de bibliotheek (Leiden, 1967); Scheurleer Th. H. Lunsing , “Un amphithéâtre d'anatomie moralisée”, in Scheurleer Th. H. Lunsing and Meyjes G. H. M. Posthumus (eds), Leiden University in the seventeenth century: An exchange of learning (Leiden, 1975), 217–77, footnote 11.

Underwood Ashworth , “The early teaching” (ref. 20), 4, 7 and 18.

In 1623 Heurnius requested from the curators of Leyden University permission to dissect dead bodies from the hospital, which was refused. About 1650 this was allowed.

See Turner Bryan S. , Medical power and social knowledge (London, 1987) and by the same author, “The anatomy lesson: A note on the Merton thesis”, Sociological review (forthcoming).

Hekscher , Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), 85–90.

David Gerard , “The Judgment of Cambyses” (dated 1498; Groeningemuseum, Bruges).

Foucault Michel , Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (New York, 1977). Richter distinguishes between a Paduan type of public anatomy, as an academic scientific ceremony, and a Bolognese type, as a social representation of the academy during a popular festival (“funzione”); a difference which in his opinion was reflected in the architectural form, in Padua a theatre, in Bologna an auditorium. Richter, Anatomische Theater (ref. 8), 56–60. In the regulations of Pisa and Padua admission seemed to be restricted to medical doctors, surgeons, students and officials. See O'Malley , Andreas Vesalius (ref. 12), 80 and 451. But in Leiden as in the other Dutch cities, where the theatre was built after the Paduan model, the public anatomy had also a representational aspect. It can be deduced from descriptions made at that time of the Dutch situation, that the anatomical manifestations attracted a mass audience. See, for the situation in Leiden, Orlers J. J. , Beschrijvinge der Stadt Leyden (Leiden, 1614; 2nd edn, 1641). While the anatomical dissection of a criminal's dead body was a public spectacle during Christmas, the Easter Days brought another public event, the “Paasdol”. See van Hulzen A. , Utrechtse kloosters en gasthuizen (Baarn, 1986), 152. During the Easter Days one could visit the madhouse to look at the lunatics, for a fee. The fees were an important source of income for the management of the madhouse and that was one of the reasons why only in the late eighteenth century was this custom abolished.

Hekscher , Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), 182–3.

The relevant literature about the Dutch regulations is: Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 33–44; Kroon , Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis (ref. 3), 49–50; Nuyens B. W. Th. , Het ontleedkundig onderwijs en de geschilderde anatomische lessen van het Chirurgijnsgilde te Amsterdam, in de jaren 1550–1798 (Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap te Amsterdam, Jaarverslag, 1928), 45–90; Hekscher , Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), 182–7; De Vries , Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis (ref. 12), 219.

Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 38–39.

Nuyens , Het ontleedkundig onderwijs (ref. 28), 56.

Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 34.

ibid., 32.

ibid., 28 and 30.

ibid., 31.

van Bleyswijck D. , Beschryvinge der Stadt Delft … (Delft, 1667), 575–6.

Nuyens , Het ontleedkundig onderwijs (ref. 28), 75.

Foucault Michel , Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison (Paris, 1975), 208–11; Discipline and punish (ref. 26).

Balsiger Barbara J. , The Kunst- und Wunderkammern: A catalogue raisonné of collecting (London, 1970).

For an inventory or a catalogue of the museum in Leiden see Barge J. A. J. , De oudste inventaris der oudste academische Anatomie in Nederland (Leiden, 1934); Catalogue of all the chiefest rarities in the Publick Theater and Anatomy Hall of the Univeristy of Leyden (Leiden, 1691); Witkam H. J. , Catalogues of all the chiefest rarities in the Public Anatomie Hall of the University of Leyden (Leiden, 1980). For a description of the museum in Amsterdam see Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 21. For the Delft collection see Bleyswijck , Beschrijvinge Der Stadt Delft (ref. 35), 581–6; Boitet R. , Beschryving der Stadt Delft (Delft, 1729); Houtzager H. L. , Medicyns, Vroedwyfs en Chirurgyns: Schets van de gezondheidszorg in Delft en Beschrijving van het Theatrum Anatomicum aldaar in de 16e en 17e eeuw (Amsterdam, 1979), 67–80.

Dr d'Acquet had a private collection in Delft. Inserta et animalia: Opus magnificentissimum et unicum Nobelissimus dominus Henricus d'Acquet, civitatis Delfensis senator ac consul, ad exemplaria naturalia summo studio ultra quinquaginta annos ex universis terrarum oris quaesita et in sua collectione conservata pingere curavit (Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam). An auction catalogue of the collection was published after his death. “Post mortem huius collectionis publica auctio habita est in aedibus defuncti Delfis die martis 29 maii 1708 et seq”. According to Houtzager, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek refers to this collection in his letters of 12 November 1680 and of 17 October 1687 to the Royal Society ( Houtzager , Medicyns, Vroedwyfs (ref. 39), 110).

Father and son Swammerdam and Frederik Ruysch had private collections in Amsterdam. Catalogus musei instructissimi. Catalogus van een seer wel gestoffeerde Kunstkamer. Inhoudende uytheemsche so natuurlijcke als konstelijck ytgewrochte dingen. Vergadert deur Joh. Jacobsz. Swammerdam. Voor d'erfgenamen (Amsterdam, 1679). In French: Le cabinet de Mr. Swammerdam (Paris, 1679). Ruysch , Museum Anatomicum (ref. 11). These and other collections were visited by many people, for example by the Prince of Tuscany and by Melchisedec Thevenot, whose informal learned society became the French Royal Academy of Sciences. See Hoogerwerff G. J. , De twee reizen van Cosimo de' Medici prins van Toscane door de Nederlanden (1667–1669): Journalen en documenten (Amsterdam, 1919), pp. xxx and 319; Lindeboom G. A. , The letters of Jan Swammerdam to Melchisedec Thevenot (Amsterdam, 1975), 13–14.

Alpers Svetlana , The art of describing: Dutch art in the seventeenth century (Chicago, 1983). From the same author, Rembrandt's enterprise: The studio and the market (London, 1988).

Kroon , Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis (ref. 3), 134–9.

The medical school of Edinburgh was founded by Monro, a pupil of Boerhaave ( Lindeboom G. A. , Boerhaave and Great Britain: Three lectures on Boerhaave with particular reference to his relations with Great Britain (Leiden, 1974), but also of Albinus. The Monro Collection, which is preserved in the Otago University of New Zealand, includes far more books by Albinus than by Boerhaave. See Taylor D. W. , The Monro Collection in the Medical library of the University of Otago: A descriptive catalogue with annotations and introduction (Dunedin, 1979). The medical school in Vienna was founded by Van Swieten, the intended successor of Boerhaave, but who was excluded from the chair because he was Catholic; for the same reason in earlier times Reinier de Graaf of Delft was unable to succeed Sylvius.

See Spigelius Adriani , Opera, quae extant, omnia, ex recensione Jo. Antonidae v. d. Linden (Amsterdam, 1645).

This theory of Harvey is built upon the work done by the successors of Vesalius in Padua. Harvey , Exercitatio anatomica (Frankfurt am Main, 1628).

Lindeboom G. A. , “Dog and frog: Physiological experiments at Leiden during the seventeenth century”, in Scheurleer Th. H. Lunsingh and Meyjes G. H. M. Posthumus (eds), Leiden University in the seventeenth century: An exchange of learning (Leiden, 1975), 279–93, p. 280.

Ibid.

Steno Nicolaus ( Stensen Niels ), Discours sur l'anatomie du cerveau (Paris, 1669); new edition with English translation: A dissertation on the anatomy of the brain. Read in the assembly held in M. Thevenot's house in the year 1665 (Copenhagen, 1950).

Ruysch , Alle de ontleed- genees- en heelkundige werken (ref. 10), 1149–228.

Reprint in Barge , De oudste inventaris (ref. 39).

Kroon , Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis (ref. 3), 63–68. Catalogue (ref. 39).

For that reason it is not clear why Balsiger after all does not count this anatomical theatre as a Kunst- und Wunderkammer. For a Kunst- und Wunderkammer in Edinburgh see Sibbald Robert Sir , Auctuarium Museai Balfouriani e Museo Sibbaldiano (Edinburgh, 1697). Balsiger Barbara J. , The Kunst- und Wunderkammer: A catalogue raisonné of collecting (London, 1970).

Scheurleer Lunsingh , Un amphithéatre (ref. 20).

Engraving by de Wit F. , “Anatomy of Dr Paaw at Leiden” (1650). See for reproductions of this and other engravings and paintings on anatomy, Wolf-Heidegger G. and Cetto Anna Maria , Die anatomische Sektion in Bildlicher Darstellung (Basel, 1967).

Bergström Ingvar , Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century (London, 1956), 154–90. See also Schama Simon , The embarrassment of riches: An interpretation of Dutch culture in the Golden Age (London, 1987), cover painting (but without the bouquet of flowers!), 573–5.

Bergström , Dutch still-life painting, 158. Durantini Mary Frances , The child in seventeenth-century Dutch painting (Ann Arbor, 1983).

Mee Charles L. Jr , Rembrandt's portrait: A biography (New York, 1988), 62–63.

In the opinion of Sutton it is not correct to denominate this ‘symbolic’ art as ‘conceptual’ (upper class) art compared with a ‘visual’ (middle class) art. It is rather a change of concept. That does not alter the fact that Svetlana Alpers has brought together as ‘visual art’ a very important movement in Dutch art and science. Alpers takes no notice of the problem of the social basis of the various movements in art and science. Sutton Peter , Masters of 17th-century Dutch landscape painting (Boston, 1987), 4. Alpers , The art of describing (ref. 41).

van Foreest (Forestus) Pieter , Opera omnia (Frankfurt, 1660).

Dobell C. , Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his “little animals” (Amsterdam, 1932). Schierbeek A. , Measuring the invisible world: The life and works of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (London, 1959). Lindeboom G. A. , “Leeuwenhoek and the problem of sexual reproduction”, in Palm L. C. and Snelders H. A. M. (eds), Antoni van Leeuwenhoek 1632–1723: Studies on the life and work of the Delft scientist commemorating the 350th anniversary of his birthday (Amsterdam, 1982), 129–52.

Lindeboom G. A. , Reinier de Graaf: Leven en werken 1641–1673 (n.p., 1973).

Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (ref. 10), ii, 277–95.

Dobell , Antony van Leeuwenhoek (ref. 60), 241.

de Graaf Reinier , Alle de Wercken (ref. 10), 3–4, my translation.

ibid., 659.

ibid., 1.

ibid., 1.

Houtzager , Medicyns, Vroedwyfs (ref. 39), 45–46.

See Wheelock A. K. , Perspective, optics and Delft artists around 1650 (New York, 1977), 2, 272–3, p. xii, and Fig. 76. Montias John Michael , Artists and artisans in Delft (Princeton, 1982), 238–46, 270. Liedtke W. A. , Architectural painting in Delft (Doornspijk, 1982); Dutch church painters: Saenredam's ‘Great Church at Haarlem’ in context (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1984); Montias John Michael , Vermeer and his milieu: A web of social history (Princeton, 1989). The Delft painters were the avant-gardists of the seventeenth century. See, for example, Rupp Jan C. C. and de Lange Rob , “Social order, cultural capital and citizenship: An essay on educational status and educational power versus comprehensiveness of elementary schools”, Sociological review, November 1989, 660–95.

Father and son Van Mierefelt , “Anatomy lesson of Dr Willem van der Meer” (1617; Oude en Nieuwe Gasthuis, Delft). Houtzager , Medicyns, Vroedwyfs (ref. 39), 89 and 93.

de Man Cornelis , “The anatomical lesson of Dr Cornelis Isaacsz Gravezande” (1681; Oude en Nieuwe Gasthuis, Delft).

Houtzager , Medicyns, Vroedwyfs (ref. 39), 106.

ibid., 109–10.

Ibid ., 58–73, 78–79. Van Bleyswijck , Beschrijvinge der Stadt Delft (ref. 35), 573–85; 75. See ref. 40.

Bidloo , Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams (ref. 11), Introduction, my translation.

Schwartz Gary , Rembrandt: His life, his paintings (New York, 1985), 104 ff.

Hekscher , Rembrandt's Dr. Tulp (ref. 12), 112 (translation by Hekscher).

“… observationes, quas demonstravit Anatome, verus medicinae oculus. Cujus lumine, ut irradiantur intima corporis penetralia: Sic producuntur ejusdem benefício, quasi in claram lucem, abditissimae, occultorum morborum, causae.” Tulp, Observationum medicarum (ref. 10), 2. Tulp gave demonstrations to midwives too. In his Observationes medicae L. III, Obs. 34, he remembers “to have once demonstrated an experiment in the uterus of a woman, and that he did it so often and repeatedly that at the end the woman died from it, leaving the dead body ready for the revolving, round anatomy table”. Quotation by Thijssen, Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 43–44 (my translation). Is this experiment vivisection?.

Collegium Privatum Amstelodamense, Observationes anatomicae selectiones (Amsterdam, 1667, 1673; reprint with introduction by Cole F. J. , Reading, 1938). See: Lindeboom G. A. , “Het Collegium Privatum Amstelodamense (1664–1673)”, Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde , cxix, no. 32 (1975), 1248–54. Droeze J. J. Haver , Het Collegium Medicum Amstelodamense, 1637–1798 (Haarlem, 1921).

Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 26.

Colie Rosalie L. , “John Locke in the Republic of Letters”, in Bromley J. S. and Kossmann E. H. (eds), Britain and the Netherlands (London, 1960), 111–29.

Bidloo , Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams (ref. 11), Preface.

Ruysch , Alle de ontleed- genees- en heelkundige werken (ref. 10), 2, my translation.

Thijssen , Nicolaas Tulp (ref. 9), 21.

Schupbach W. , The paradox of Rembrandt's ‘Anatomy of Dr. Tulp’ (London, 1982). Ruysch , Alle de ontleed- genees- en heelkundige werken (ref. 10), 490.

Swammerdam , Ephemeri vita (ref. 10), 2, my translation. See Schierbeek A. , Jan Swammerdam (12 February 1637–17 February 1680): His life and works (Amsterdam, 1967).

Swammerdam , Ephemeri vita (ref. 10), p. A2.

Hekscher , Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), 4–5.

De Vries , Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis, 108.

The study of Hekscher is the classic study in this field. Hekscher, Rembrandt's Anatomy (ref. 12), chap. 8. Gary Schwartz chiefly studied Tulp and Rembrandt in the socio-economic and cultural context of Amsterdam, in contrast to Leiden. Schwartz, Rembrandt (ref. 77), 145. Mee situates the painting chiefly in the context of the history of anatomy. Mee, Rembrandt's Portrait (ref. 57), 112. Vesalius, Brief behelzende de aanwending (ref. 15), 70. Schupbach's thesis that the men in the painting can be divided in two groups, one group oriented to “know thyself” and the other to “know God”, is not supported by the results of the technical examinations of the paintings that up to now had been attributed to Rembrandt. See De Vries et al., Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis (ref. 12).

Nuyens , Het ontleedkundig onderwijs (ref. 28), 73–74.