Conrad Gesner's Liber amicorum 1555-1565

Abstract

The National Library of Medicine, Bethesda (Maryland), recently ac- quired from the late Ernst Weil of London (England) the little book in which Gcsner had his friends, guests and acquaintances inscribe their names during the last ten years of his lifeL It seems appropriate in this quatercentenary year to describe, albeit briefly, the contents of this volume.It is a moving witness to the warmth of Gesner's friendships, his generous hospitality, and his capacity to inspire and enlist support from scholars of all ages and backgrounds.Though it does not of course offer any startling new revelations (the Gesner it reveals is the Gesner of the published letters), it does show how wide and varied was Gesner's circle, from the lowly apo- thecary to imperial physician, from the raw medical student on his way to or from Montpellier, Bologna or Padua, to the celebrated professor and distinguished divine.Some are household names still: John Dee, Leonard Rauwolff, Sebastian Castellio.But the majority are forgotten, so obscure indeed that their only memorial is often the briefest of entries in a university matriculation list.The more fortunate gained some immorta- lity from passing references in Gesner's own works : these are the men to whom Gesner was indebted for some new thing, a rare animal, an exotic plant, a strange mineral, or some intriguing new «secret» from Italy (of which we hear once in the LièerJ.How scrupulous Gesner was in acknowledg- ing his debts can be seen in the many lists of helpers prefixed to the sue- cessive books of the JJisforia anima/ium: that to book 1, for example, con- tains no less than 52 names, some of whom reappear in the Lifeer.At least fifteen entries in the Lifeer specify the nature of the debt thus incurred by Gesner.Other notes describe his visitors' origins, occupations, and attainments.Occasionally we find a remark revealing Gesner's own préoccupa- tions, such as that on leaf 46v, where below some Greek verses he writes: Gervasius Marstallerus Brisacen[sis] medicus nunc Lubeci plurima habet que ad animalium historiam pertinent.This is an interesting allusion to the * The purchase was made possible through the generosity of the Robert Tracy Gillmore and Emma Wheat Gillmore bequest.* For Gervasius Marstaller (d.1578) see Ernst Giese and Benno von Hagen, Ge- sc/iic/ite der medizinisc/ien Ja/cufaät der Friedric/i-Sc/iiZier-t/nii;ersüäf Jena, Jena 1958, p. 83-85.

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