Skip to main content

Abstract

At home once again in Leiden, Gerard matriculated in the Faculty of Letters of the University on February 26, 1717.1 He probably studied there for the customary two years before he entered the Faculty of Medicine.2 On July 3, 1725 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine with a dissertation on the arteries of the human body.3

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Reference

  1. LeidUB, Archieven van Senaat en Faculteiten der Leidsche Universiteit, 13: Volumina inscriptionum VII (1699–1727), p. 352. Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV (The Hague, 1875), col. 851. In both of these his age is given as 21 when in fact he was 16.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Philip C. Molhuysen, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Leidsche Universiteit (“Rijks geschied-kundige publication,” XX, XXIX, )(XXVIII, XLV, XLVIII, LIII, LVI; 7 vols., The Hague, 1913–24), V, 215 (Appendix: Catalogus promotorum). Gerard van Swieten, Dissertatiomedicainauguralis,Dearteriaefabricaetefficaciaincorporehuman... [etc.] (Leiden, 1725).

    Google Scholar 

  3. LeidUB, Archiven... Universiteit, 13: Volumina inscriptionum VII( 1697–1727), p. 352.

    Google Scholar 

  4. LeidUB, Archiven... Universiteit, 88–95: Recensielijsten.

    Google Scholar 

  5. LeidUB, Archiven... Universiteit, 88–95: Recensielijsten.

    Google Scholar 

  6. For a discussion of Cartesianism in Holland see Ferdinand Sassen, Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte in Nederland tot het einde der negentiende eeaw (Amsterdam, 1959), pp. 120–90.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Lipsius was professor of history and law, 1578–91; Scaliger, professor of Latin, antiqui-ties, and history, 1593–1609; Sylvius, professor of medicine and chemistry, 1658–72.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Willem de Sitter, Short history of the observatory at the University of Leiden, 1633–1933 (Haarlem, 1933), p. 8.

    Google Scholar 

  9. From here one could also get a good view of the city, according to a visitor in the early eighteenth century, Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen Holland and Engelland (Ulm, 1753), pp. 396–98. Uffenbach also describes in detail the instru-ments he found here.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hesso Veendorp, Ho ri vs Academicvs Lvgdvno-Batavvs, 1587–1937 (Haarlem, 1938), p. IO2; Albrecht von Haller, Haller in Holland; het dagboek... (1725–1727), ed. G. A. Lindeboom (Delft, 1958), PP. 45, 98–99; Uffenbach, pp. 403–04.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Francois Schuyl, Catalogus van alle de principaalste rariteiten die op de Anatomie-learner, binnen de stadt Leiden vertoond werden (Leiden, 1727).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Haller, PP. 43–44, 99; Uffenbach, e.g., PP. 419, 427–29, 459–65, 468–71.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des métiers (17 vols., Paris, 1751–65), IX, 451 •

    Google Scholar 

  14. Cassirer, pp. 61–62. On s’Gravesande’s life see the article by E. Montreux in Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (Leiden, 1924), VI, cols. 623–27; for his philosophy, Sassen, pp. 224–27.

    Google Scholar 

  15. On Voltaire’s journey to Leiden, see Pierre Brunet, Les physiciens Hollandais et la méthode experimentale en France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1926), pp. 117–19.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Oeuvres completes (70 vols., Kehl, 1784–89), LII, 450.

    Google Scholar 

  17. (And flattered the Prince that he would attract many more!) Ibid, LXIV, 29 (in-correctly dated).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ibid, p. 40: “aufrichtig, ohne Geheimnuss, ohne Einbildung, dienstfertig, gutherzig, freundlich.”

    Google Scholar 

  19. T. A. Sprague, in Memorialia Herman Boerhaave, optimi medici, p. 93.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Gibbs stresses this aspect of his work. Vol. V of Analecta Boerhaaviana contains Boerhaave’s correspondence with the Imperial Court physician at Vienna, Joannes Baptista Bassand.

    Google Scholar 

  21. J. E. Kroon, “Boerhaave as professor-promotor,” Janus, XXIII (1918), 291.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Haller, p. 93 (where he says 80 or 90), and 3g.

    Google Scholar 

  23. LeidAHM, 35113: an interesting document signed by Boerhaave, dated February r 5, 1721, requesting, for anatomical dissection, the body of a criminal condemned to execution.

    Google Scholar 

  24. On Haller, the short chapter of Sigerist in his The great doctors, pp. 191–204, may be useful and convenient.

    Google Scholar 

  25. J. D. Comrie in Memorialia Herman Boerhaave, optimi medici, pp. 32–39.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sigerist in ibid, pp. 40–45, or in his On the history of medicine, pp. 202–08.

    Google Scholar 

  27. King, The background of Herman Boerhaave’s doctrines, p. t s. King is closely followed here.

    Google Scholar 

  28. A method of studying physick... written in Latin, trans. into English by Mr. Samber (London, 1719).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Reported at length in the second part of Herman Boerhaave, Medical correspondence; containing the various symptoms of chronical distempers; the professor’s opinion, method of cure, and remedies; to which is added Boerhaave’s practice in the hospital at Leyden, with his manner of instructing his pupils in the cure of diseases (London, 1745). The date of both cases is given as the fall of 1737.

    Google Scholar 

  30. In Analecta Boerhaaviana, ed. and trans. G. A. Lindeboom, Vols. III and V.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Burton, p. 62; Haller, p. 40; Molhuysen, Brennen, V, I (Bijlagen: Series lectionem, 1725).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Haller, pp. 38–39. Three letters of Boerhaave to Fénelon (the ambassador, not the famous archbishop) appear in C. Sommé, “Lettres inédits de H. Boerhaave et G. van Swieten; précédées de quelques réflexions,” Annales de la Société de Médecine d’Anvers, XII (1851), 665–82.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Analecta Boerhaaviana, trans. G. A. Lindeboom, V, 249 and 265.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ibid, pp. 22–23; trans. Sigerist, On the history of medicine, p. 200.

    Google Scholar 

  35. A. C. J. De Vrankrijker, Vier eeuwen Nederlandsch studentleoen (Voorburg, n.d.), p. 87.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Hendrich Benthem, Holländischer Kirch-und Schulen-Staat (Frankfurt, 1688), Pt. II, p. 36.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Haller, p. 50. Concerning fees, Haller also noted, p. 59, that each private course cost 3o guilders (public lectures were free).

    Google Scholar 

  38. J. Belonje, “Een Leidse promotie in 1696,” Leidsjaarboekje, XLII (í95o), 122–25.

    Google Scholar 

  39. E. Hulshoff Pol, “Een Zweed te Leiden in 1769, uit het reisdagboek van J. H Lidén,” Leidsjaarboekje, L (1958), 127–45.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Journal of a horticultural tour through some parts of Flanders, Holland, and the north of France, in the autumn of 1817 by a deputation of the Caledonian Horticultural Society (Edinburgh, 1823), pp. 156, 163.

    Google Scholar 

  41. (Georges) Cuvier and [François Jos.] Noël, Rapport sur lesétablissements d’instruction pu-blique en Holland, et sur les réunir dl’Université Impériale. (Paris, 1811).

    Google Scholar 

  42. LeidGA, Rechterlijk Archief, 88, Vol. K, fol. 95 verso; LeidGA, Doop-en trouwboeken van de R. K. kerken (Appelmarkt), 1729

    Google Scholar 

  43. In “Plan pour la Faculté de la Medecine,” in Kink, I, Pt, 2. 256–57.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Molhuysen, Bronnen, V, 137 (Acta senatus, 1734).

    Google Scholar 

  45. See the letter of medical advice to De Gorter, dated October 30, 1730, LeidGA, 8870; the correspondence with De Wind, to which we shall again refer, AmstUB, H. S. E. f. 176–79.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Three letters, dated September 5 and November 22, 1739 and one undated, continuing Boerhaave’s consultations with Groenen, in Sommé, pp. 680–82.

    Google Scholar 

  47. LeidGA, Secretarie Archief, 2278, p. 69; Berckel, p. 178.

    Google Scholar 

  48. LeidGA, Secretarie Archief, 2278, p. 72; Berckel, pp. 178–79.

    Google Scholar 

  49. On the history of Catholic poor relief see J. P. A. Brand, “Roomsch-Katholiek parochiaal armbestuur van Leiden, 1739–1939,” Leids jaarboekje, XXXII (1940), 14.4–51. los Ibid, p. 148.

    Google Scholar 

  50. LeidGA, Secretarie Archief, 2278, p. 93; Berckel, p. 182.

    Google Scholar 

  51. WienONB, 11214:2; Van Leersum, “Cours de Boerhaave,” Janus, XXIII (1918), 323. He did not use it for Albinus’ physiology or anatomy courses — WienÖNB, 110 57–59, and 11060–62.

    Google Scholar 

  52. It might be appropriate at this point to provide a checklist of these manuscript volumes:

    Google Scholar 

  53. Herman Boerhaave, Praelectiones academicae, in proprias Institutions rei medicae (6 vols. in 7, Göttingen, 1739–4.4). Haller was evidently too quick for Van Swieten. That Van Swieten was annoyed at Haller is clear in letters to his friend Dr. Sanchez at St. Petersburg; see WienONB, 12713, fol. III-12, 119–20, 126–27, 140–41, 144-45.

    Google Scholar 

  54. See Lindeboom’s bibliography in Vol. I of Analecta Boerhaaviana, pp. 47–54.

    Google Scholar 

  55. E. C. van Leersum, “Een notarieele geneeskundige verklaring uit de achttiende eeuw,” Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde, LXIII (1919), II A, 272–73.

    Google Scholar 

  56. WienÖNB, lists. Published posthumously as Constitutiones epidemicae et morbi potissimum Lugduni-Batavorum observati, ed. Maximilian Stoll (2 vols., Vienna and Leipzig, 1782). See also the article by J. J. van der Kleij on this in Nederlandsch tijdschrii t voor geneeskunde, LXV (1921), II A, 33–39.

    Google Scholar 

  57. WienÖNB, 11193. The experiments fall between 1732 and 1745, but there is one ad-ditional for 1758.

    Google Scholar 

  58. Letters, July 31, 1741 (AmstUB, H. S. E. f. 176), and July 27, 1743 (AmstUB, H. S. E. £ 177).

    Google Scholar 

  59. WienÖNB, 11467. First published in Paris, 1688. Lamy (1640–1715), according to the Nouvelle biographie générale (Paris, 1862), Vol. XXIX, col. 294–98, was a prolific writer on literary, philosophical, religious, and scientific subjects. As an Oratorian and Cartesian he became involved in a struggle against the orthodox faculty of the University of Angers.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Published in Leiden, 1723. WienONB, 11219 Valliant (1669–1722) was director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris (according to Analecta Boerhaaviana, V, 411–12) and arranged

    Google Scholar 

  61. Académie... Paris, Histoire, 5772:1, p. 116; Müller, p. 36; Wurzbach, XLI, p. 39; Van Heuveln, p. 12, dates the invitation 1736. Neither Baldinger nor Louis record it.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Geyl, Netherlands in the seventeenth century, I, 163.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Boxer, p. 286. The standard works on the history of Leiden’s cloth industry are N. W. Posthumus, De geschiedenis van de Leidse lakenindustrie (3 vols., The Hague, 19o8–39); and the same author’s source volumes, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van de Leidsche textielnijverheid (“Rijks geschiedkundige publicatiën” VIII, XIV, XVIII, XXII, XXXIX, XLIX; 6 vols., The Hague, 1910–22).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Blok, III, 7; J.A. Faber and others, “Population changes and economic developments in the Netherlands: a historical survey,” A.A.G. bydragen, XII (1965) 47–153, discusses the general population growth rate, 1500–1795.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Quoted by Geyl, Revolt of the Netherlands, p. 4.4..

    Google Scholar 

  66. John Evelyn, Diary (6 vols., Oxford, 1955), II, 39 (August 13–16, 1641).

    Google Scholar 

  67. Complete letters, ed. Robert Halsband (2 vols., Oxford, 1965–66), I, 249–50.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Les delices de Leide (Leiden, 2722), p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Ibid, p. 24.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Boswell in Holland, 1763–1764, ed. F. A. Pottle (London, 1952), p. 280–81.

    Google Scholar 

  71. For the north Netherlanders publishing and bookselling were as favorite occupations as trading with the Indies or Spain. Leiden was full of bookshops and printers; and if Boerhaave praised a book in the morning it was sold out by the afternoon, said Haller.179John Evelyn had visited Elzevier’s shop “renown’d for the politenesse of the Charac-ter & Editions of what he has publish’d through Europ” in 1641.179 Pieter van der Aa (1679–1733), the publisher of Les delices de Leide in

    Google Scholar 

  72. Politics was the concern of the Regent class — prestigous but less wealthy than the great merchant class.

    Google Scholar 

  73. The letters of the father, Pieter de la Court (1618–85), give a good view of Leiden in the previous century; see J. H. Kernkamp, “Brieven uit de correspondentie van Pieter de la Court en zijn verwanten (i661–1666),” Verslag van de algemene vergadering van het Historisch Genootschap gehouden te Utrecht op 31Oktober 1955 en 2 November 5957... met Bijdragen en mede- delingen van het Historisch Genootschap, LXX (1956), 82–165, and LXXII (1958), 3–195. On the son, Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664–1739), see L. A. Driessen, “Pieter de la Court van der Voort, millionnair en dilettant-tuinarchitect, 1664–1739,” Leids jaarboekje, XXXVII (1945), 152–64; and J. C. Overvoorde, “De collectie De la Court,” Leids jaarboekje, V (1908), 154–76. Leiden’s riches, reflecting the prosperity of the “Golden Age,” are presently on display in the city’s several museums: the National Museum of Antiquities with a rich collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman items; the National Museum of Ethnology con-taining outstanding exhibits of oriental, African, and American objects; the Museum of the History of Science; and the Lakenhal, the City Museum, for arts.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Les delices de Leide, p. 186; see also Oerle cited in note 12 above.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Haller, pp. 35–36.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Ibid, p. 44.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Diary, II, 52 (August 28, 1641).

    Google Scholar 

  78. Boxer, p. 185.

    Google Scholar 

  79. Ibid, pp. 185–86. The common-sense philosophy of the Dutch in the eighteenth century, according to Sassen, p. 220, produced a voluminous quantity of books and periodi-cals most of which had little intrinsic value.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Nederland’s beschaving in de zeventiende eeuw (3 druk, Haarlem, 1963), pp. 155–61.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Boxer, pp. 268–94.

    Google Scholar 

  82. E. H. Kossmann, “The Dutch Republic,” chap. XII in The new Cambridge modern history (Cambridge, 1961), V, 300.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Presently in a suspended state of ruin and restoration, the Burcht is now both a tourist attraction and archeological site. The slopes of the hill were once a park that supported a variety of fruit trees, stags, hinds, and peacocks and during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the plateau circle contained a hedge maze which especially delighted children; credulous strangers, after having refreshed themselves with a glass of beer, were told that the water well was so deep that it had a connection with the North Sea through which a duck could easily swim (see Les delices de Leide, pp. 164–71; A. Bicker Caarten, “Een bezoek aan Leiden in 1697,” Leids jaarboekje, XXXIX (1947), log-10; and Haller, pp. 46–48). The

    Google Scholar 

  84. HagAR, Ordinaris 743o (Brussel 174.4.). The secret correspondence of Kinschot for the remainder of the year (HagAR, Secrete 7457 [Brussel 1731–47D)ends on September 24, 1744 and does not, therefore, yield any further details for that year than does the ordinary.

    Google Scholar 

  85. Ibid, Kinschot on October 8. The date was not November 5 as given by G. A. Lindeboom, “Gerard van Swieten als hervormer der Weense medische faculteit,” Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde, XCIV (May 6, 195o), 1278.

    Google Scholar 

  86. Cf. also the report from Burmania at Vienna, dated October 21, 1744, in HagAR, Ordinaris 6418 (Duitsland Nov.-Dec. 1744).

    Google Scholar 

  87. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Königsegg to Francis, November 13, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  88. Ibid, Königsegg to Francis, November 26, 1744; cf. HagAR, Ordinaris 7430 (Brussel 1744), Kinschot on November 19.

    Google Scholar 

  89. HagAR, Secrete 6606 (Duitsland 1744) : December Is, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  90. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Königsegg to Francis, December 16, 1744; and Kaunitz to Francis, December 16, 1744. Cf. also HagAR, Ordinaris 7430(Brussel 1744), Travest on December 17. Thus, December 12, given by Lindeboom, Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde, XCIV, 1278, and December 17, given by Moffat, p. 152, are incorrect.

    Google Scholar 

  91. HagAR, Ordinaris 6419 (Duitsland Jan.-Mar. 1745).

    Google Scholar 

  92. Ibid.: February 2 and March 8, 1745.

    Google Scholar 

  93. HagAR, Secrete 6607 (Duitsland 1745) : December 30, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  94. Boerhaave’s aphorisms (Delacoste’s numbering 1328–1345 but Van Swieten’s 1322–1339), PP. 362–64.

    Google Scholar 

  95. Volume IV of his Commentaria was published in 1764.

    Google Scholar 

  96. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Engel to Francis, beginning November 17, 1744. Also the reports of Lebzelter (technically the best) beginning October 23, of Van Swieten, and the joint reports of the several other attending physicians.

    Google Scholar 

  97. Alfred von Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresia’s (Io vols., Vienna, 1863–79), II, 565; trans. Moffat, p. 152.

    Google Scholar 

  98. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Kaunitz to Francis, November 11, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  99. WienÖNB, 11169; this has been published in Analecta Boerhaaviana, ed. G. A. Linde-boom (Leiden, 1964), Vol. V (that is, Boerhaave to Bassand).

    Google Scholar 

  100. WienöNB, 12713, fols. 115–16, Van Swieten to Sanchez, April 8, 1743

    Google Scholar 

  101. Alfred von Arneth, “Biographie des Fürsten Kaunitz; ein Fragment,” Archiv für öster-reichische Geschichte, LXXXVIII (1900), 17–21. Moffat, p. 225, claims he received a doctorate in law from Leiden, but a careful check of both the Album studiosorum and the Catalogus promotorum (in Molhuysen, Bronnen) proves there is no basis for this statement.

    Google Scholar 

  102. Tos WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Kaunitz to Francis, October 20, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  103. Ibid.: Kaunitz to U1feld, November 6, 174.4..

    Google Scholar 

  104. Ibid.: Königsegg to Francis, November 9, 1744. Cf. also Königsegg to Ulfeld, November 6, in Arneth, Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, LXXXVIII, 72–73, note 2.

    Google Scholar 

  105. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports: Kaunitz to Francis, November I I, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  106. Kaunitz to Silva-Tarouca, December 4174.4., in Arneth, Archiv für österreichische Ge-schichte, LXXXVIII, 74 note 3.

    Google Scholar 

  107. Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresia’s, II, 565; trans., in part, by Moffat, p. 151.

    Google Scholar 

  108. Maria Theresa to Kaunitz, November 3? 1744, in Arneth, Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, LXXXVIII, 70, note 1.

    Google Scholar 

  109. Francis to Kaunitz, November 3, 1744, ibid, p. 71, noter.

    Google Scholar 

  110. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports, November 17, 22, and 30, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  111. Ibid.: Königsegg to Francis, November 26, 29, and December 17/18, 1744; Königsegg to Ulfeld, December 17/18, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  112. Ibid.: Kaunitz to Francis, November 17, 1744.

    Google Scholar 

  113. Ibid.: Belrupt to Francis, November 19, 1744. Maria Theresa was quite aware of Belrupt’s “aversion” to Engel (see her November 3 letter to Kaunitz cited above, note 212).

    Google Scholar 

  114. Ibid.: Thoumin to Francis, January 5,1745.

    Google Scholar 

  115. Ibid.: Königsegg to Engel, January 12, 1745.

    Google Scholar 

  116. WienHHSA, OMeA, 36, petition of Johann Wolik, May 26, 1745.

    Google Scholar 

  117. HagAR, Ordinaris 7430 (Brussel 1744),November 23.

    Google Scholar 

  118. Van Swieten left Leiden in May226 and, according to his biographers, arrived in Vienna on June 7, 1745.227

    Google Scholar 

  119. WienHHSA, Marianne Reports, Königsegg to Ulfeld, night of December 17/18,5744.

    Google Scholar 

  120. R. Bijlsma, “Roomschgezinde Hollandsche geslachten (Vos, Hem-van der Hem) in betrekking met den Keizer,” Maandblad van het Genealogisch-Heraldisch Genootschap: “De Neder-landscheLeeuw, LI (1933), cols. ,10–12.

    Google Scholar 

  121. Naamwyzer.. (Leiden, 1745), p. 32; WienÖNB,12713, fols. 122–23.

    Google Scholar 

  122. Académie... Paris, Histoire, 1772:1, p. 118; Müller, p. 8; Wurzbach, p. 39.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1970 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Brechka, F.T. (1970). Leiden. In: Gerard Van Swieten and His World 1700–1772. Archives Internationales D’Histoire Des Idées/International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3223-0_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3223-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3225-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-3223-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics