Overview

From around 1650 until well into the nineteenth century, Frederik Ruysch enjoyed international fame as an anatomist. He owed his renown to a preparation method that greatly aided early-modern scientists in their exploration of the human body and transformed dissection from a messy business into a widely admired art. Ruysch’s anatomical collection was one of Amsterdam’s tourist attractions, for his embalmed bodies were astonishingly lifelike in appearance. The visitors who gazed with amazement at his preparations included the Russian tsar Peter the Great, who was so moved by the sight of an embalmed boy that he kneeled down to kiss him. The tsar later bought Ruysch’s entire collection and had all the specimens shipped to St Petersburg, where they still attract visitors from all over the world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Luuc Kooijmans ,  Diane Webb
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   18
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.924kg
ISBN:  

9789004187849

ISBN 10:   9004187847
Pages:   472
Publication Date:   07 December 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Language:   Dutch; Flemish

Table of Contents

List of Figures Prologue in St Petersburg 1 The Anatomy Lesson Apothecary’s Apprentice Anatomical Knowledge Heroes Examination Family Louis de Bils Discoveries Idle Boasting Vivisection Descartes Research Preservation Secret Formulas Doctorate Confrontation with De Bils 2 Established and Envied Appointment in Amsterdam Medical Bastions An Established Anatomist Hardened Wax Research Professorship Anatomy Lesson Intellectuals in Power Midwifery Opposition Gluttonous Tipplers 3 Under Fire Accusations Intimidation Opposing Ruysch A Nobody New Knowledge, Old Certainties The Insolvent Estate Radical Supporters 4 Ruysch at Work The Surgeons’ Guild The Battle for Bodies The Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus The House on the Bloemgracht A Private Museum Idle Inventions Surgery The Workplace 5 Rivals Perfection Rivalry King Stupidity Discrediting Rivals Malice Aforethought Peter the Great in Amsterdam From Brain to Scrotum Stone-cutting Ruysch, Rau and Bidloo 6 The Collection Capriccio Anatomico Specimens Animals Wonders The Republic of Letters Lessons Deceit Visitors Physico-theology 7 The Return of Peter the Great Collection for Sale A Return Visit Secret The Collection Moves East 8 Reproduction Rachel A Dutiful Father Hendrik Ruysch’s Lessons in Obstetrics The Placenta The Shaft The Development of the Embryo The Mystery of Reproduction 9 Latter Days Approaching Death Late Work Discussion with Boerhaave Plant Anatomy Final Work Father and Son 10 Ruysch’s Legacy Possible Successors Broken Hip The Estate Tradition versus Enlightenment: Titsingh and Ulhoorn Biography The Secret The Preparations in the Kunstkamera Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Luuc Kooijmans, PhD (1985) in History, Utrecht University, was Assistant Professor of History at the University of Amsterdam from 1986 to 1995. He is the author of Friendship and the Art of Survival in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1997) and Love on Order: The Courtly Life of Willem Frederik van Nassau (2000). In 2004 he was awarded the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation Humanities Prize for his oeuvre, and in 2008 he received the Great History Prize for Dangerous Knowledge: Insight and Fear in the Days of Jan Swammerdam (Bert Bakker, 2007). Diane Webb had a long career as a professional musician before devoting herself entirely to translation. Specialising in historical and art-historical subjects, she has translated books by H.L. Wesseling, Leonard Blussé, Maarten Prak, Geert Warnar, Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker. She was also a member of the team responsible for the new translation of the complete letters of Vincent van Gogh. For her translation of Herman Pleij’s Colors Demonic & Divine: Shades of Meaning in the Middle Ages & After she was awarded the Vondel Prize for Dutch Translation in 2005.

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