It’s a little known dehumidified room-in-the-round under lock and key on the upper floor of the library at Rush University Medical Center. Overhead, in a lighted alcove, busts of Rush honorees peer down over the display cases, where leather-bound volumes dating as far back as 1500 peek out from behind glass doors.

A number of these rare books, the collection in the Stanton A. Friedberg, M.D. Rare Book Room, will soon have a new home at the University of Chicago. There, librarians expect the valuable medical tomes will draw the attention of historians of science and medicine, as well as art historians and cultural historians.

One of the highlights of the Friedberg collection is a complete edition of Johann Remmelin’s Catoptrum microcosmicum, an anatomical “flap” book published in 1660. These anatomy books were carefully constructed with engravings that were cut away so that parts might be lifted to reveal the underlying anatomical structures.

See the news release: http://www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?id=1332