Abstract
This paper is about Christopher Wren’s engravings for Thomas Willis’ The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves of 1664. It is a study in the intersection of medicine and art in 17th century Britain. Willis, an eminent English physician and anatomist, was a major figure in the development of modern neurology, and The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves was his most famous and influential book. Wren was Willis’ assistant and medical artist. I discuss the visual strategies employed by Wren to present their research and frame it as genuine knowledge.
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Notes
Willis, Cerebri anatome. All further references and quotations will be from the English reprint edition, The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves, edited and with an introduction by William Feindel.
Willis, 54.
Gibson, “The Bio-Medical Pursuits of Christopher Wren,” 336.
See W C Gibson and L Reti, Some Aspects of Seventeenth-Century Medicine & Science, 41.
British Museum MS Add 25071, fo. 38v.
Oughtred, Clavis Mathematicae. See the fifth page of Praefatio ad Lectorem. Author’s translation.
W Feindel, “Introduction to the Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves,” 33.
Willis, 53.
Quoted in J Henry, “The Matter of Souls: Medical Theory and Theology in Seventeenth-century England,” 101.
As we consider the engravings, it must be mentioned that, apart from the drawing above, these images are the only ones from Wren’s early career that have survived.
The literature on the theoretical mediation of scientific images is substantial. My aim in this paper is not to review it but to contribute another instance of it.
C Wren Jr., Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren, 60.
Willis, 137, 138, 139 and 142.
Wren’s images were more detailed and accurate than anything that preceded them. Interestingly, Wren is the inventor of the mezzotint engraving technique. Only someone concerned with capturing detail, surface quality and texture would have pursued such an invention.
In 1600, the English scientist William Gilbert introduced the new Latin word, ‘electricus,’ to refer to the phenomenon of static electricity. The words, ‘electric’ and ‘electricity,’ make their appearance in 1646 in Sir Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica.
C Wren Jr., 64.
C Wren, Gresham Lecture in Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren, 26–27.
C Wren, Tract I in Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren, 236.
Ibid, 237.
Ibid.
Willis, 192.
Ibid.
References
Gibson, WC. “The Bio-Medical Pursuits of Christopher Wren.” Medical History, vol. 14, October (1970), 336.
Gibson, WC and L Reti. Some Aspects of Seventeenth-Century Medicine and Science. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969.
Henry, J. “The Matter of Souls: Medical Theory and Theology in Seventeenth-century England.” In The Medical Revolution of the Seventeenth Century, eds. R. French and A. Wear. Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Oughtred, G. Clavis Mathematicae. Oxoniae: Excudebat Leon, Lichfield, 1652.
Willis, T. Cerebri anatome: cui accessit nervorum descriptio et usus. Londini: Typis Tho. Roycroft, Impensis Jo. Martyn & Ja. Allestry, 1664.
Willis, T. The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves. Ed. W Feindel. Montreal: McGill University Press, 1963.
Wren, C. Gresham Lecture in Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren. From the Parentalia or Memoirs by his Son Christopher. Campden, Gloucestershire: Essex House Press, 1903.
Wren, C. Tract I in Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren. From the Parentalia or Memoirs by his Son Christopher. Campden, Gloucestershire: Essex House Press, 1903.
Wren, C Jr. Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren. From the Parentalia or Memoirs by his Son Christopher. Campden, Gloucestershire: Essex House Press, 1903.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Pamela Miller, Christopher Lyons, Lily Szczygiel and Diane Philip of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine of McGill University for their good will, patience and generosity. I have benefited greatly from their expertise and knowledge of their library’s impressive collections.
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Neher, A. Christopher Wren, Thomas Willis and the Depiction of the Brain and Nerves. J Med Humanit 30, 191–200 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-009-9085-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-009-9085-5