The Lancisiana Library as a Resource for the Transmission of Medical Culture
Authors
Maria Conforti
Section of History of Medicine, Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy.
Marco Fiorilla
Lancisiana library Arciospedale di S. Spirito in Saxia - ASL Roma 3, I
Abstract
The Lancisiana Library was founded in the years 1711-1714 by Giovanni Maria Lancisi. Housed in the S. Spirito Hospital in Rome, its very structure and organization mirrors the scientific and medical culture of its founder. Lancisi meant to offer to the young apprentice, either physician or surgeon, the means foa a rational medical education, based on "plenty of patients" and a good choice of books. The comparison between the Library and some of Lancisi's works show his ideas about the relationship between the sciences - chemistry, natural history, mathematics and mechanics - and medicine, as well as the close relationship between medicine and surgery.
