The Medical and Scientific Book in the Roudnice Lobkowicz Library in the 15th and 16th Centuries

Abstract

With about 65000 volumes, the Roudnice Lobkowicz Library, recently restituted to the owner and reconstructed at Nelahozeves Castle, is one of the greatest aristocratic libraries of Middle Europe. The library holds an extremely rich collection of medical books, starting from manuscripts and incunabula. Following up the development of studies started in the last year in the Library focused on provenances, collecting and with the reception of books throughout the centuries, the research is a survey of the medical literature present in the library. It is an attempt to individuate the kind of edition as well as to determinate the origin of items, to explain their presence according to the different provenances and possibly their use through the different periods. As result, is possible to determinate models of reception of medical books in aristocratic libraries.