Gerard Van Swieten and His World 1700–1772

QU ALITIES, QUERIES, AND REPUTE Holland has bred its share of remarkable men and Gerard van Swieten was one of them. Raised in Leiden by fairly prosperous Catholic parents, educated at Louvain and Leiden, acknowledged as one of the most gifted pupils of the famed scientist Herman Boerhaave, and an eminent doctor in his native city for many years, he became chief physician at the Court of Vienna, director of the Imperial Library, head of both the Vienna Medical Faculty and the Censorship Commissi