The publication of privately assembled collections of medically related medals dates back to 1773 when a volume titled ‘Beschreibung einer Berlinischen Medaillen–Sammlung, die vorzüglich aus Gedächtnis–Münzen berühmter Aertzte bestehet : in welcher verchiedene Abhandlungen, zur Erklärung der alten und neuen Münzenwissenschaft, imgleichen zur Geschichte der Arzneigelahrtheit und der Litteratur eingerücket sind by J. C. W. Moehsen’ was published. In 456 pages illustrated by some fifty copperplate engravings supplemented by an index of names and medical events Johann Carl Wilhelm Moehsen, the personal physician of Friedrich the Great of Prussia, explained in great detail the reason for each issue as well as the biographical and historical background of these carefully collected medical medals. Karl Asmund Rudolphi, a Swedish-born professor of Anatomy in Berlin published his collection of personal medals of physicians and scientists in alphabetical order, without illustrations, in three different editions, in 1823, 1825 and 1829; over this brief span of years his collection grew from 387 to 709 items. Karl Ludwig von Duisburg, a physician and surgeon of Danzig, published his collection of 611 medical portrait medals in 1869, again without illustrations, arranging them alphabetically, but grouping each cohort by country of origin. These early works were all published with introductions, texts and descriptions in Latin, then still the prevalent scholarly language of medical history. In 1859 Hippolyte Kluyskens, an emeritus professor of medicine and surgery in Ghent, published a volume with hundreds of portrait medals illustrated by copperplate engravings and, in 1886, a general catalogue of his extensive numismatic collections that contained short descriptions of upwards of 600 medically themed medals. The latter volume for the first time included institutional medical medals in addition to those with the more conventional portraits. Furthermore both of Kluyskens’ works mingled doctors with scientists and indeed with other distinguished intellectuals and, most importantly, both works eschewed Latin for a vernacular language, in this case, French. The pre-eminent catalogue of a private collection of medically themed medals remains ‘Medicina in Nummis’ published in 1937 by Eduard Holzmair. This famous work carefully describes 5,557 such items in German and photographically illustrates 325 of them, all of which were personally collected prior to 1905 by the Trieste ophthalmologist Dr Josef Brettauer who willed them to the University of Vienna where the collection resides today in the Institute of Numismatics. Many other important catalogues of medical medals exist but these, based on institutional collections, present assemblages of medals from multiple, often haphazardly gathered sources.
Dr Harald Nilsson has now produced an excellent new volume, Erik Wallers samling av medicinhistoriska medaljer, eighth in the series Studia Numismatica Upsaliensia and extensively illustrated. Following in the above described tradition this is a publication based on a single person’s medical medal collection gifted to a single institution. Erik Waller (1875–1955) was a distinguished Swedish surgeon. Like many physicians trained in earlier times he was also a scholar interested in medical history and by extension a collector in many medically related fields. His universally themed medical library, for instance, also housed at and published by Uppsala University, is reputed to be the most extensive ever gathered by a single individual.
The catalogue here under review consists of 735 items, of which 652 are alphabetically arranged portrait medals of physicians, with the remaining specimens mainly consisting of medals commemorating various institutions, academies and professional congresses; there is also a small section of varia. This volume has been splendidly produced, with a buckram-encased traditional binding of individual signatures, fine glossy paper stock and superb colour photographs clearly reproducing each and every medal at full size (with a very few exceptions). The sequentially numbered textual entries, each placed opposite its corresponding double sided medallic illustration, contain relevant information in a standardised format, including the name and dates of persons or of congresses or institutions; an iconographic description of both sides with a full citation of the epigraphy; the metal, year of issue, precise dimensions and weight of each piece; the name, country of origin and date range of the artist, and, wherever available, one or more references to previously published catalogues. This entire work, including the introduction, the above outlined individual medal descriptions, and the translations of each medal’s epigraphic content is in the Swedish language for this, of course, is a largely Swedish collection housed in a Swedish university’s coin cabinet, and its primary target is a presumably Swedish speaking audience. Nevertheless, since the detailed medallic descriptions follow a regular and logical format, understanding the entries should pose no substantial hardship for speakers of other European languages, especially since each item is also fully and clearly illustrated immediately nearby. A brief bibliography and indices of persons depicted and of the artists who created these medals is appended.
Numismatists will readily appreciate the beauty and relative scarcity of many of the items in this catalogue and find it useful as an addendum to the existing literature of medicina in nummis, an established category among students of such material. Those previously unfamiliar with medallic art and thus unaccustomed to surveying such a rich array will, I believe, greatly enjoy and profit from engaging with this volume. Physicians and health care providers of all types, especially those already interested in the history of their craft will certainly be impressed by the art of the medal and the way it has served to reinforce a traditional identity and the sense of dignity long established within the medical profession. Historians of medicine also have much to gain by considering this centuries-old and widespread method of honouring physicians and memorialising their individual accomplishments and their collective institutions. Historians have, understandably, long been accustomed to privileging printed or manuscript texts as the pre-eminent source materials for their reconstructions and interpretations of the past. But medals as well as other material artefacts have increasingly been recognised as offering oblique alternative perspectives that can often enrich our understanding of how past societies expressed and interpreted themselves and indeed came, reciprocally, to be formed in turn. Harald Nilsson’s careful marshalling and crisp presentation of Waller’s fine medical medal collection has the potential to open many eyes and perhaps even some minds as well.
