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Medicine and Science at Exeter Cathedral Library: A Short Title Catalogue of Printed Books, 1483-1900, with a List of 10th-19th Century Manuscripts

Exeter Cathedral Library, established in the eleventh century, houses medical and scientific books from all periods.  The collection is one of the best of its kind and is a major resource. It includes the library of the Exeter physician Thomas Glass, which he left to the cathedral in the eighteenth century, as well as pre-1901 items from Exeter Medical Library. 

This catalogue is the first comprehensive treatment of the collection to be published, and has over 2700 entries, including material added in the 1990s.  The book also includes an Introduction by Peter Thomas, plus indexes of subjects; co-authors, editors, biographees; owners.

The great names in medical history are represented—Hippocrates, Galen, Vesalius, Paré, Jenner and many others, and among the scientists—Galileo, Kepler and Boyle.  And the subjects covered by the collection include ‘hard’ medicine and science as well as herbalism, hypnotism, phrenology, navigation, agriculture, tobacco, winemaking, astrology, alchemy and acupuncture.

• The first comprehensive treatment of these books to be published

• The collection includes Hippocrates, Galen, Galileo, Kepler. 

• Subjects include herbalism, hypnotism, navigation, agriculture, winemaking, astrology, alchemy, acupuncture, phrenology as well as ‘hard’ medicine and science

• A major West Country resource and one of the most significant collections of its kind

Market:  Historians of medicine.  Medical, West Country, general and cathedral libraries.  Book collectors and dealers.  Bibliographers.  West Country historians.  Individuals interested in medical history and bibliography.

Author:  Peter W. Thomas has been a librarian at Exeter Cathedral Library since 1977.

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