Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Santé

In June 2016, four large atlases comprising two hundred and fifty anatomical drawings which were made around 1654-1660 in Leiden (Netherlands) were identified at the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé. Made by the painter Marten Sagemolen (ca. 1620-1669) under the direction of the anatomist Johannes van Horne (1621-1670), they systematically describe the muscles of man. This extensive collection had been lost since the mid-18th century. The albums entered the collections of the École de santé in 1796, along with the magnificent drawings by the painter Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711) for the anatomy of Govard Bidloo (1649-1713), and they have remained in the medical library at 12, rue de l'École-de-médecine, today called BIU Santé médecine, which now belongs to Université Paris Cité. Purchased as an anonymous lot accompanying Lairesse's masterpiece, the albums had not been successfully examined until 2016. The great rarity of this collection and the surprise of its identification aroused curiosity. After initial documentation and digitisation work by the BIU Santé's Health History Department, a restoration and study project was carried out with the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France. It was followed by an international conference on 18 and 19 June 2021, of which this volume provides the proceedings, and an exhibition of the atlases at the Musée d'histoire de la médecine d'Université Paris Cité, from 15 November 2021 to Saturday 15 January 2022.

The study of four Homeric hymns reveals some versatility of Nymphs with regard to their maternal and courotrophic functions. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, Maia is both a mother and a nurse, combining biological and social motherhood. The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite offers the first occurrence of nursing Nymphs, but one of the Idaean Nymphs is supposed to be Aeneas’ mother, as the role of Aphrodite remains concealed. The courotrophic function is also attested in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, but Nymphs continue to follow the god after raising him, taking part in his thiasos. Finally, the Homeric Hymn to Pan shows an example of biological motherhood without social motherhood, the young mother rejecting her child. Despite the variety of these different roles of mother and nurse, there is some constancy in the mode of action of the Nymphs, which seems to be characterized by a form of care in hiding, making these deities mediating entities protecting the transition between two statuses, from childhood to adulthood.

The term ‘livres d’artistes’ hides from view creative artworks, whose presence in special library collections is justified by their artistic and literary value but also by their value as witness of their times. After defining the content of these collections, this article analyses the way ‘livres d’artistes’ are managed. Because they are different from all other books, they struggle to find their public. Active promotion is thus an essential step in making them properly influential.