Highlights from the collections
Shishi bessho zui (Japanese Kakemono or roll)
Shishi bessho zui (Japanese Kakemono or roll)
The title of this illustrated roll means ‘illustrations showing how to perceive those who are to die and identify those who are to live’. Dating from the early 19th century, its contents include coloured diagrams of male, female and children’s anatomy, acupuncture points, human parasites and massage techniques.
The roll was given to the RCP by Dr Herbert R. Spencer (n.d.).
L’art et instruction de bien dancer
Anonymous, published Paris, c.1495
This is the only known copy in the world of the earliest known surviving book about dancing. It is also one of the earliest known examples of printed music. The book contains a collection of dances called basses danses or ‘low dances’. These were popular formal court dances in the 15th and early-16th centuries, especially in the Burgundian court in central France.
The book was given to the RCP as part of the library of Henry Pierrepont, Marquis of Dorchester (1606–1680).
Regimen Sanitatis Salerni
Salernian medicine, Latin, 1300-1400
The Schola Medica Salernitana in Salerno was one of the first and most important medical schools in medieval Europe. Men and women from all over Europe studied there between the 900s and 1200s. This is the school’s most famous medical text. It is a collection of hygiene rules, written in Latin verse. This copy was produced in Europe, probably France, and brought to England by the end of the 1500s.
It was given to the Royal College of Physicians by W.H. Allchin, in 1908.
The Wilton Psalter
Illuminated psalter, Latin, c.1250
This handwritten copy of the Book of Psalms from the Bible is heavily illustrated throughout. It was produced, probably at Salisbury, for use at Wilton Abbey, a convent for nuns. All monastic orders in England were dissolved and their lands and treasures dispersed in 1539 by Henry VIII.
This book passed through several private owners until it was given to the Royal College of Physicians in 1687, by the Marquis of Dorchester, as part of a collection to replace its library, lost in the Great Fire of London.