Ophthalmodouleia Das ist Augendienst

The History of Medicine Collections has mounted 107 slides of 91 woodcuts from Georg Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia Das ist Augendienst [Dresden: Matthes Stoeckel] 1583. Two of the woodcuts (anatomy of the head and eye) have multiple movable superimposed flaps. The Trent copy is one of three or four known contemporary handcolored copies of the first edition. Dr. George O. D. Rosenwasser (Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University) has photographed the woodcuts which are believed to have been executed by Hans Hewamaul after Bartisch’s own drawings. Bartisch is considered the founder of modern ophthalmology. He had no formal education as a physician, but served three apprenticeships in surgery, developed a substantial practice with an excellent reputation, and became the court oculist to Duke Augustus I of Saxony in 1588. The Ophthalmodouleia is the first ophthalmic textbook in the German language rather than Latin or Greek, the first Renaissance work on eye surgery, and the first to establish a surgical subspecialty. Bartisch printed the work at his own expense. The Ophthalmodouleia was recently published as part of Julius Hirschberg’s The History of Ophthalmology in an English translation by Donald L. Blanchard, M.D., complete with facsimile handcolored illustrations. A portion of this collection is available for viewing in our online exhibit. Property of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library's History of Medicine Collections, Durham, NC. Photographed by Dr. George O. D. Rosenwasser.