{"id":26671,"date":"2015-03-17T16:27:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T20:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=26671"},"modified":"2015-03-17T16:28:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T20:28:49","slug":"in-the-service-of-the-eye-georg-bartischs-16th-century-textbook-on-ophthalmology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2015\/03\/in-the-service-of-the-eye-georg-bartischs-16th-century-textbook-on-ophthalmology\/","title":{"rendered":"“In the Service of the Eye”: Georg Bartisch\u2019s 16th Century Textbook On Ophthalmology"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: \u00a0Kevin Grace<\/em><\/p>\n

\"bartisach<\/a>A new exhibit has been mounted in the 8th<\/sup> floor hallway of Blegen Library.\u00a0 Reproduced from a volume in the Archives & Rare Book Library, this exhibit features fourteen woodcuts from a 16th<\/sup> century science book.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the seminal medical texts of the Renaissance, Georg Bartisch\u2019s volume on the eye, Ophthalmodouleia Das ist Augendienst<\/em>, was a remarkably detailed guide to surgical techniques on ocular diseases. \u00a0Published in 1583, this \u201cservice of the eye\u201d would build the foundation for ophthalmology research for the next 300 years.<\/p>\n

\"Physician<\/a>Bartisch was an extraordinary man.\u00a0 Born in Konigsbruck, Saxonia in 1535, at the age of 13 he left home and apprenticed himself to a barber surgeon and then became an itinerant physician, traveling throughout Germany until he came under the patronage of Duke Augustus I of Saxony in 1588.\u00a0 Self-trained in eye surgery, his skill was such that when he published his manuscript describing eye diseases and their treatment, the book became a best-seller in the medical field.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most noteworthy about the book, its pages contain 92 woodcuts that provide a visual guide to eye ailments and include images of the proper medical instruments, the operating theatre, and most unusual, two lift-the-flap illustrations that take the practitioner step-by-step \"Weight<\/a>through the surgical process.<\/p>\n

The author was also a man of the age: in addition to understanding the vital practice of surgery, Bartisch fervently believed in witchcraft and astrology and the active role they played in medicine.\u00a0 He died in 1607.\u00a0 A paper on this fascinating book will be presented this spring at the annual meeting of the Ohio Academy of Medical History, and the exhibit in Blegen continues through May.<\/p>\n\n\t\t