Bibliotheca Walleriana

I gave a talk on the Bibliotheca Walleriana at Da Shop on April 20, 2019, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Bibliotheca Walleriana is one of the world's most remarkable collections of books and autographs pertaining to the history of medicine and science. Dr. Erik Waller (1875-1955) collected each one of his 22,000 books over a span of 40 years. In addition, he collected over 35,000 letters, autographs, and other memorabilia relating to these famous people. One of the happiest times of my life occurred between 1994-1995, when I was allowed to go through every book in the catalogue with the objective of writing down anything of interest that Waller had left behind in the books. The result was over 150 pages of single-spaced notes on the entire book collection. Uppsala University Library (UUB) has recently completed cataloging the entire manuscript collection. My new goal is to match each book with its author and then add a link to the corresponding online edition (scanned ebook) if it is available. Thus far, I have covered about 3,000 books and authors, including titles not included in my original notes. Many of these books often have links to the manuscript collection. Some fascinating discoveries that I have come across in the autograph/letter section include letters written by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Baden Powell, C. G. Jung, Charles Darwin, René Descartes, Thomas Edison, Tesla, and even the Marquis de Sade, to name but a few. In addition, there is the remarkable discovery that Waller owned a Michelangelo autograph which he traded for another item.

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