The Library of Vrijthoff

The wealth of books of a professor of medicine at theIllustreSchool at Maastricht

The library of Joannes Bernardus Vrijthoff was sold in a public auction on 14 May 1805 from Vrijthoff’s former residence on Wolfstraat 8, Maastricht. Vrijthoff was head of the military hospital and professor of anatomy and surgery at the Illustre School, Maastricht, a college of higher education which had been forced to close its doors for good during the French Period. The auction catalogue, preserved in the Town Library of Maastricht, lists over 920 books: ‘une collection de livres en tous genres de littérature, sur-tout dans la médecine, chirurgie, anatomie &c’.

Vrijthoff’s library is fascinating and valuable for at least three reasons. First of all, it affords a view of the intellectual life and, more generally, the social climate inMaastricht during the second half of the eighteenth century. This period was characterised by military events – the Maastricht garrison was part of the defence of the southern border of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces – and by the ‘two-lord’ government of the garrison town: by the States General of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and the prince-bishop of Luik. Secondly, the library offers a splendid view of the breadth of the intellectual horizon of this doctor medicinae. Vrijthoff’s orientation was not limited to his ‘great’ predecessors in medicine. His heroes, and in some way his colleagues, were Hippocrates (460-370 v. Chr.), Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) and Ambroise Paré (1509-1590).         

There was a third reason why Vrijthoff’s library was important: its wealth of books illuminates the remarkable academic and broader cultural heritage that has been preserved until today in the Town Library and the Jesuit Collection of Maastricht University. A large part of Vrijthoff’s library could be reconstructed using works from these two libraries, although it is questionable whether the exhibited items were actually physically present in Vrijthoff’s collection. However that may be, this heritage is of an (almost) unrivalled richness. The rediscovery of the rare and magnificent second edition of the famous anatomy atlas (1555) of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), the beautiful herbals of the Antwerp professor Rembertus Dodonaeus (1517-1585) and Jan Hermansz. Krul’s (1602-1646) edition of the Pampiere Wereld (Paper World) underline the necessity of presenting this heritage to a wider public. For this exhibition a thematic selection has been made, with emphasis on the medical section of the library. 

This exhibition has been made possible by the cooperation between the Art and Heritage Committee of Maastricht University, the Maastricht Town Library, the University Library of Maastricht University and Maastricht University Medical Centre+.