Harding, Vanessa (1998) Mortality and the mental map of London: Richard Smyth's obituary. In: Myers, R. and Harris, M. (eds.) Medicine, mortality and the book trade. Folkestone, UK: St. Paul's Bibliographies, pp. 49-71. ISBN 9781884718816.
Abstract
Book synopsis: In this most recent volume of the Publishing Pathways Series, leading scholars from different specialties provide fascinating glimpses of the interaction between science, medicine and the culture of print. Booksellers, printers, collectors, readers and the mechanisms of production and distribution across several centuries form the basis of their studies. Michael Harris reveals the medical hazards that constantly threatened the health and safety of London printers in the 19th century. Peter Isaac reveals the close connections between bookselling and the marketing of proprietary and patent medicines. Vanessa Harding uses the evidence provided by Richard Smyth's "Obituary" to reconstruct a complex network of printers and customers in plague-ridden London. Sylvia De Renzi uses the career of Robert S. Whipple, a prominent manufacturer of scientific instruments, to show how an individual collector could contribute to the emergence of the history of science as a distinct discipline in the 20th century. Lotte Hellinga uses the evidence provided by incunabula to construct chronologies of the spread of ideas as well as to track the spread of particular diseases as they swept across 15th-century Europe. Roy Porter, in a wide-ranging argument, explores the relationship of print and readers, including dire warnings from the past about the effect of reading on mental health. Finally, John Symons recounts Sir Henry Wellcome's 40-year omnivorous collecting mania, which formed the basis of the Wellcome Institute's library and underlines his immense contribution to the development of the history of medicine as a field of interest.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Hall |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jan 2017 11:55 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:31 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/17982 |
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