Thomas Bartholin ― The Anatomy House in Copenhagen

While the dissection of bodies had already been allowed to form part of an education at European universities during the 1500s, an anatomical theatre was first established at the University of Copenhagen in 1644, that is to say, an auditorium where lectures on bodies could be held. In addition to serving the instruction of students and general research, it was here that professor of anatomy Thomas Bartholin demonstrated the existence of the thoracic duct and later the lymphatic vessels in a human being, an achievement bestowing immediate fame on Bartholin and resonating in learned circles throughout Europe.

In 1662 Thomas Bartholin published A Short Description of the Anatomy House in Copenhagen. This book, which meticulously describes the layout of the Anatomy House together with the first eighteen years of its history, was composed in Latin, so that by this means it could make this institution known to an international public. These and other activities went on in the anatomical theatre until the great fire of 1728 in Copenhagen ravished it. Bartholin's publication survived, which in the narrower sense documents a part of the University's history and from a broader perspective gives an insight into the scientific ideal that provided the impetus behind anatomical studies in seventeenth-century Europe.
Furnished with commentary by the editor Niels W. Bruun and an introduction by historian Morten Fink-Jensen, this first appearance of Bartholin’s work in English, thus reaching a wider international audience, will undoubtedly consolidate its rightful position as an important contribution to the history of anatomical houses.

The English translation was undertaken by Peter Fisher. The book contains 44 illustrations in colour and a revised critical edition of the Latin text by the editor.

Niels W. Bruun is a researcher at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Peter Fisher is a translator who lives in England.