Facendo Il Libro

“Facendo Il Libro: The Making of Fasciculus Medicinae, an Early Printed Anatomy” is an online exhibit focused on an influential medical book first published in Italy in 1491. Originally collected in manuscript form, the richly illustrated text is comprised of a number of medical treatises on uroscopy, phlebotomy, anatomy, surgery, and gynecology. The exhibit allows visitors to browse full-text scans of all five editions (1495–1522) in The New York Academy of Medicine’s collections; to explore each edition’s exquisitely illustrated woodcuts and to learn about their cultural and medical meanings; and to compare the books’ illustrations in different editions over time. Essays on the culture of printing in Venice, the workshops and printers who produced these popular editions, and the creation of the text and accompanying illustrations situate visitors in the print culture of early modern Italy and illuminate the moments of the books’ production.

Facendo Il Libro intends to build bridges among an interdisciplinary community of scholars, educators, clinicians, curatorial and conservation professionals, digital humanists, and the general public to explore connected themes of the history of medicine, history of the book, and the humanities.

The online exhibit website was built using Islandora, an open-source software framework that utilizes Drupal for the user interface. Items were photographed with the Library's state-of-the-art digitization equipment and the books were digitized with an eye towards maintaining as much of the materiality of the object as possible. Our goal is to provide a digital experience of the book as close as possible to physical experience. You can experience each book in person by visiting the Library.

This online exhibit was made possible by generous support from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Thanks to our dedicated contributors and Library staff who helped to make this project successful.

Commissioned Authors
Taylor McCall holds a postdoctoral fellowship from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, and works in the Education Department at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in History of Art from the University of Cambridge in 2017, and previously earned degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the material culture of medieval medicine, and specifically the role of anatomical diagrams as epistemological tools. Her first article, exploring anatomical images and their text in a manuscript in Cambridge, has been published in the most recent issue of the Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society.

Natalie Lussey Seale was awarded her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2016. Her detailed study of the printshop of Giovanni Andrea Vavassore has given way to post-doctoral research on the wider printing industry of Venice, collaborative projects, literacy, and bookselling and buying in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe.

Curator
Anne Garner, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts

Digital Team
Robin Naughton, Head of Digital
Audrey Loberfield, Digital Technical Specialist
Scott Lipkowitz, Digital Intern
P. Lauren Kuei, Digital Consultant

Library Administration
Lisa O’Sullivan, Director
Paul Theerman, Associate Director

Library Staff
Special thanks to Rebecca Filner, Emily Miranker, Allison Piazza, Arlene Shaner, Yungjin Shin, and Scott Devine.

About The New York Academy of Medicine

The Academy is home to one of the most significant historical libraries in medicine and public health in the world, safeguarding the heritage of medicine to inform the future of health. The Library is dedicated to building bridges among an interdisciplinary community of scholars, educators, clinicians, and the general public. It fills a unique role in the cultural and scholarly landscape of New York City through its collections and by providing research services and an engaging roster of public programs integrating medicine with history, the humanities, and the arts presented by its Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health.

Created in 1847 for the use of the New York Academy of Medicine’s fellows, the Library opened to the general public in 1878. Today, it is one of a handful of such libraries across the country to provide this level of open access, and the only one of its kind in New York. The library holds over 550,000 volumes, including a rare book collection of approximately 32,000 volumes; 275,000 portraits and illustrations; approximately 400,000 pamphlets; and over 1,600 linear feet of manuscripts and archives. READ MORE

Please feel free to contact us any time. We would love to hear from you.

Permissions & Policies

Images on the digital collections website are public domain (pre-1923) and are freely available to the general public for educational, research, and personal use unless otherwise noted. Images can be downloaded from available download links in the details of certain items, or users can use the clip tool that appears for large images to download the image displayed in the viewer. The clip tool can be used to capture a zoomed-in portion of an image for download.

For permission to publish materials held by The New York Academy of Medicine: Rights and Permissions

For general Library polices: Policies