Digital exhibit on early modern medicine at the Edward Worth Library (Dublin)

The Edward Worth Library is a rare books collection, bequeathed to Dr Steevens’ Hospital (Dublin) by Dr Edward Worth (1676–1733), who was one of the Hospital’s earliest Trustees. Worth was a physician in early eighteenth-century Dublin and, as might be expected, his collections are particularly strong in all medical areas. He collected a host of works by physicians across Europe but he was also interested in the writings of other practitioners, especially surgeons and apothecaries.

This exhibition explores Worth’s books on diagnosis and prognosis, and what they can tell us of the many treatments for disease in early modern Europe. These included familiar Galenic treatments such as the use of herbal medicine, bleeding and purging, and the preventative use of the six non-naturals. Worth was clearly also interested in more modern treatments, such as the use of new drugs (outlined in his wide collection of pharmacopoeias of the period), and in his tracts on inoculation. In addition, of course, when all else failed there was always surgery. Worth’s collection of medical texts reflects the many locations of early modern medical practice: in the home, in hospitals and in emerging spas, which offered minerals waters.

The exhibition was curated by the Librarian of the Edward Worth Library, Elizabethanne Boran, with contributions from Fabrizio Bigotti (Villa Comel Pisa), Owen Corrigan (Trinity College Dublin), Michael V. Hanna, and Antoine Mac Gaoithín (Edward Worth Library).

Source: https://thepracticeofmedicine.edwardworthlibrary.ie/