Bibliotheca Walleriana

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 the 22,000 books in his collection 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 his collection 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. Each book is being matched with its author and then a link is added to the corresponding online edition (scanned ebook) if it is available. Thus far, 6,000 books and authors have been completed, including titles not included in the original notes. Many of these books often have links to the manuscript collection. Some fascinating discoveries in the autograph/letter section include letters written by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Baden Powell (the founder of Boy Scouts), 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.

Source: Erik Waller's Manuscript Collection UUB

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

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