Book of the Month: Helkiah Crooke’s Mikrokosmographia
Helkiah Crooke (1576-1635) was an English physician who studied at Leyden and Cambridge before settling in London and being appointed physician to King James I, to whom he dedicated his first book, Mikrokosmographia. A Description of the Body of Man, published in 1616. This is a general treatise on human anatomy and physiology, based upon the two most respected anatomical works of the time, those of Bauhin and Laurentius. The remarkable illustrations in the book were taken from Bauhin who, in turn, had taken them from Vesalius. The book represented a significant contribution to English knowledge of anatomy which had tended to lag behind developments on the Continent.
William Harvey had publically demonstrated the circulation of the blood just some months before the appearance of Crooke's book but no mention of this new discovery is made in Mikrokosmographia. Nor did Crooke make any changes to his chapters on the heart, veins, and arteries when a second edition of his book was published in 1631, reprinted in 1651.
The publication of the book was not without controversy, however. The Bishop of London protested to the College of Physicians about the "indecent" chapters and illustrations on reproductive anatomy while the College of Physicians were concerned about the book being written in English (instead of Latin), thus making their specialized, professional knowledge accessible to a broad audience. Furthermore, Crooke dedicated the book to the Company of Barber Surgeons who, unlike the university-educated physicians, were trained by apprenticeship with little or no formal schooling.
Despite the threats of the College, Crooke had the book printed in its original form by William Jaggard who would later print the first folio of Shakespeare's plays. Crooke had attempted, unsuccessfully, to treat Jaggard for syphilis. The famous portrait of Shakespeare in the First Folio was engraved by the noted Flemish artist, Martin Droeshout, who was then engaged by Crooke to engrave the magnificent frontispiece to the 2nd edition of Mikrokosmographia.
Dun's Library holds a fine, folio copy of the 1651 printing of the 2nd edition of Crooke's great work. It was previously owned by Dr. John Herbert Orpen (died 1862), a member of a noted Irish medical family who made many donations to the College Library.
Robert Mills,
RCPI Librarian