HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Avicenna (left) was the Latin name of the great medieval Muslim scholar Ibn Sina (980-1037), who wrote the Canon medicinae, a compendium of medical knowledge. The 1491 edition exhibited at the Countway is the first printing of a medical treatise in Hebrew. The illustration (right) from 'The Works of Tobias' compares the organs of the body to the rooms of a house. (Both purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1931)

There is something about the physical manifestations of history that communicate both intellectual heft and inspirational authority. Which is why Longwood's Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine - the largest academic medical library in the nation - has launched a new campaign to ensure that the artifacts in its vast collection are brought to light, rather than locked away in a dusty basement archive.

The 1491 edition of Avicenna's Canon is the first appearance of the work in print. (Purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1934)

"The Medical School laid out a challenge: to reimagine the library as an information institute that would again become a vibrant resource for knowledge management where people could collaborate on different projects," said Isaac Kohane, a pediatric endocrinologist with a Ph.D. in computer science and director of the Countway since October. "When I arrived at the Countway, the Hyams collection of rare Hebraic literature had just been curated, with documents going back to the 13th century. Over time, I developed an increasing awareness that I could help to share this jewel beyond the world of dedicated scholars and the relatively small stream of visitors to the library."

One step toward doing just that - not only for the Hyams collection but for others as well - is to revamp the library's electronic resources, a gargantuan task already under way. Another is a series of symposia and events organized by Kohane, the first of which, "The Role of Jews in the History of Medicine," was held March 1.

The conference began with remarks from Kohane and Allan M. Brandt, a professor of the history of medicine in the Department of Social Medicine and of the history of science at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), who noted that "the Hyams exhibit represents only a thin but exceptional slice of the remarkable materials that the Countway has for scholars across many, many fields in the humanities."

The day's first speaker, Joseph Shatzmiller, a historian from Duke University, provided context by recounting common medieval treatments and the complex legalities already developing around medicine by the early 14th century. He described documents recording accusations of negligence against Jewish doctors and the physicians' efforts to defend themselves with appeals to the judicial system in the form of patient waivers and notarized prognoses. "These practitioners knew the value of their service," he concluded. "These legal tactics indicate a standard of professionalism." Given the generally unsanitary conditions, the crude procedures, and the insufficient anesthetics, he added, more patients than one might imagine were actually cured.

Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences Sander Gilman of Emory University introduced his topic - stereotypes throughout the ages of Jewish drunkenness or teetotaling, depending on the era and the circumstances - by mentioning current efforts to link race or ethnicity to genetic predispositions and particular treatments. Quoting modern researchers who have claimed a genetic resistance to alcohol among self-identified Ashkenazi Jews, Gilman said, "Never mind that it's difficult enough to figure out what it means to 'drink significantly less' - but what does it mean to be a Jew? This is a category that doesn't bear out in terms of genetic mapping." Nonetheless, he provided a fascinating catalogue of European attitudes toward drinking among Jews throughout the centuries, citing decorum, assimilation, and the desire to protect the community as among the social forces contributing to the view that eventually emerged of Jews as abstemious.

The notions of rationality discussed by Gilman segued nicely into the themes of an after-lunch talk given by UC-Berkeley's John Efron on "Medicine and the Modernization of German Jewry." The image of the Jew as a pale, sickly nerd - or a bookish intellectual, depending on your point of view - is also a social construct, according to Efron, convenient for anti-Semites eager to paint the religion as effeminate, "sapping the manhood of Europe."

De Febribus, a manuscript tract on the treatment of fever, was written in France in the middle of the 13th century. It is one of the oldest manuscripts in the library. The illustration probably depicts the 10th century physician and philosopher Isaac Israeli. (Purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1930)

Gad Freudenthal, a visiting professor of religious studies at Yale University, outlined the social conditions surrounding the translation of medical texts into Hebrew. Many Arabic books, he noted, were translated, while few Latin ones were, though they made up the bulk of the literature. The "exceptional case" was that of 24 physicians' manuals translated from Latin in 1197 by an anonymous scholar who had converted to Christianity and later back to Judaism. "He saw that Jews were flocking to the doors of non-Jewish physicians and learning medicine that was not according to Jewish law," said Freudenthal. "He wished to preserve the self-identity of Judaism through a distinct culture."

That culture is well-represented at the Harvard College Library, according to Judaica bibliographer Charles Berlin, who reviewed the relevant holdings of Widener Library. But it is the Countway's collections that provide "a perspective around current issues such as contagion, informed consent, and genomics," according to Kohane.