Anotated Bibliography: The Effects of Print on Medicine

One area of interest for me is medicine. It kind of runs in the family I guess you could say. My father is an ear surgeon and my two older brothers are both in the residency stage of their training to become doctors. The relationship between print and medicine is positive and direct. There was a great surge in the publishing of medical findings, procedures, anatomy, etc. with the development of the printing press. I hope to show you a bit of that through the books that I found on the topic.

Growing up in this generation, I am most familiar and comfortable with the internet; thus, that is where my search began. I researched general information on how print had affected medicine and how they developed together. Something interesting that I came across was that Leonardo Da Vinci was the artist for many early anatomy and medical books. I had no idea that his work expanded that far. I was actually pleasantly surprised how often print was mentioned in the books that I came across. From what I saw, most of the books about the history of medicine include something about print and the affect it had on the world of medicine. The importance of print in medicine cannot be over emphasized. It allowed for the sharing of innovations, new techniques, revolutionary treatments, etc. These findings were previously more localized and not as well circulated, thus drastically limiting the sharing of medical knowledge. The books that I came across emphasized this point many times over. After doing some preliminary research online, I then went to the Harold B. Lee Library and flipped through the pages of the books there. As luck would have it, I found exactly what I was looking for as there were many books about the history of medicine that referenced how print and publishing had played a part.

Cheselden, William. The Anatomy of the Human Body. Printed for H. Woodfall, R. 1763. As the title suggests, Cheselden focused this book on the anatomy of the human body. The illustrations that accompanied the text were one of the great revolutions brought about by print. Being a surgeon himself, Cheselden knew the body well and communicated this knowledge to students through words and illustrations. This book was used for medical students for almost 100 years.

Natural Library of Medicine. A Catalogue of Seventeenth Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine. Bethesda, Md. 1989 This was one of the best finds of the day. This book of over 1300 pages contains thousands of concise annotations of the printed books in the National Library of Medicine in the 17th century. What a precious resource this is. This book shows that print and publishing gave way to medical libraries that were able to centralize medical knowledge and also allow it to be circulated. As the reader scans this book, you quickly find a huge variety of subjects, including experiment results, new techniques, etc. This was the most impressive book for me.



Porter, Roy. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. New York: W.W. Norton. 1998. Porter describes the history of medicine in a way that focuses on medical ideas and how those ideas were implemented by people. It steers away from talking about epidemics or diseases that have spread over the earth. There is a focus on ideas and how the ideas of people aided the development of medicine. There is also a great emphasis on the affect of print in the medical field. An example of this is when Porter states, "print brought simplified versions of elite medicine to the people..." (Porter, 283). There are many references to print and how it allowed the ideas that were flowing in the medical field to reach everyone.


Porter, Roy. The Cambridge History of Medicine. Cambridge University Press. 2006. Porter switches gears from the book cited above and decides to move in on diseases and how medicine has developed as a result of being more prevalent. As you look at the chapter headings you can see that this is the case. Porter opens up with talking about disease and the affect it had on the New World and from there he introduces the development of medicine through combating this diseases. Again, print appears as a them in the publication and distribution of such developments in medical treatments.

Strathem, Paul. A Brief History of Medicine: From Hippocrates to Gene Therapy. Carroll, New York. 2005. Much like Porter's books, Strathem discusses the history of the medical field and its development over time. Strathem too referred to the effects of print on the medical world. He mentioned that 24 years after the Gutenberg Press was developed, a medical encyclopedia was printed that included many works of ancient Greek medicine. Strathem points out how this sparked an interest all over Europe in ancient Greek medicine.

I hope that this post has helped you to understand how the world of medicine was dramatically improved by the development of print and publishing. The world knew medical information sharing like never before. The medical world utilized print for all it was worth.