Nicolaes Tulp and the golden age of the Dutch Republic

In the seventeenth century, Holland and the allied provinces of the northern Netherlands won final independence from their Spanish overlords and formed a worldwide economic empire. Dutch ships dominated the seas from the Caribbean to Japan and reconnoitred the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. Dutch society was cosmopolitan and supported great painters, philosophers and scientists. In these astonishing years, the physician Nicolaes Tulp [1593-1674] practised medicine in Amsterdam and, in 1641, published a book of his medical observations. This book ran into many editions; the Cowlishaw collection contains one of the last, dated 1716. Tulp is best known as the chief figure in a famous painting by Rembrandt, but his book has been studied by medical historians as a source of early descriptions of cranial surgery, spina bifida, vesical calculi, beriberi and many other conditions. The book is also a mirror of Dutch society in a great period in European history.