Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Anna Lantz

  • Erik Waller the book collector

    Anna LantzStockholm, Sweden Erik Waller (1875–1955) was a Swedish surgeon and book collector who spent most of his professional life in Lidköping, a small town in the southwest of Sweden. He received his medical education in Uppsala and Stockholm before moving to Lidköping in 1909, where he was offered a position as acting hospital doctor.…

  • Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library

    Anna Lantz Sweden   Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library September 28, 2011 Anders Johan Hagströmer (1753–1830) was one of Sweden’s leading anatomists and a student of Linnaeus. A cofounder of both the Swedish Society of Medicine and of the Karolinska Institute,1 he was also a collector of medical and scientific books, which he donated to the library…

  • The basilisk—a cause of sudden death

    Anna Lantz Einar Perman Stockholm, Sweden   Mythical creatures have been described and feared since ancient times. The group is large. It includes dragons, sirens, basilisks, centaurs, phoenixes, sea monsters, and several more. These mythical creatures may have been invented to provide explanations for events for which there were no natural explanations, such as when…

  • Saint Apollonia, patron saint of odontology

    Anna Lantz Stockholm, Sweden   Image of Saint Apollonia within the initial “V” of the prayer Virgo Apollonia. Parchment breviary, Flanders, c. 1400. Photo by Anna Lantz. Six miniatures from the back side, none of which depicts Saint Apollonia. Parchment breviary, Flanders, c. 1400. Photo by Anna Lantz. Saint Apollonia was from a Greek family…

  • Giulio Casserio’s anatomical atlas

    Anna LantzStockholm, Sweden Giulio Casserio (c. 1552–1616) was an Italian anatomist active in Padua around the year 1600. He published several anatomical works, the finest being the Tabulae anatomicae LXXIIXX. This remained unknown until the German doctor Daniel Rindfleisch (aka Bucretius) had it printed posthumously in 1627 along with his own annotations. The beautiful illustrations…

  • Andreas Vesalius: An anatomical pop-up

    Anna LantzStockholm, Sweden At the end of the 1530s, loose-leaf anatomical pop-ups began to appear in Germany. The idea quickly caught on and soon spread to other European cities. Normally these anatomical fugitive sheets were sold in pairs and represented a seated man and woman surrounded by a short Latin or vernacular text giving the…

  • Mondino de’ Liuzzi

    Anna LantzStockholm, Sweden Mondino de’ Liuzzi (c. 1270–1326), or Mondino, was a professor of practical medicine at the University of Bologna, where he introduced human anatomy and dissection, a subject that had not been taught in Europe since antiquity. During the dissections, Mondino would read aloud from his own manual, Anatomia, which was written in…