Abstract
Van Swieten’s initial appointment at the Court of Vienna was as Protomedicus and Bibliothecarius. Königsegg referred to this double designation back in Brussels the previous November and Van Swieten had announced it to a friend before he left Leiden.1 Because of his position as chief physician he was charged with the care of the royal family; because he was director of the court library he became a censor; and because he was both the chief doctor and a politico-literary counsellor he became an advisor on reforming the university. Medicine, censor-ship, and education were thus the three areas of reform in which Van Swieten was engaged in Vienna. It is evident that he succeeded not only because of his abilities but because his attitude so well complemented that of the Empress; he was a learned doctor and he agreed that the hour required a mediation between tradition and rational pragmatism. Like his employer, Van Swieten was a conservative reformer.
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Reference
Arneth, Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, LXXXVIII, 74.
Académie... Paris, Histoire, 1772:1, pp. 122–23, trans. Sigerist, The great doctors, p. 212.
WienÖNB, I2713, fols. I 17–18.
Wien, Augustinerkirche, Taufenbuch, Band BB (Liber baptizatorum et matrimonio iunc-torum. Parochiae Caesaraeae Vienne,1m-1755), fol. 162 recto (December 26, 1746). The child was named Maria Theresia Francisca Josepha; despite the obvious flattery of the godparents it should be remembered that one of Van Swieten’s sisters as well as his wife also bore the names Maria Theresia. See also WienÖNB, 12713, fols. 134–35.
WienÖNB, 12713, fols. 15o-51 (to Sanchez, October 24,175o). The official documents however, are dated 1753; see WienAVA, Hofadelsakt (May 19, 1753) and Wappenbuch, Vol. CLXXVI, fols. 321–24. The date of 1758 given in some books (e.g., Wurzbach, XLI, 45) is without doubt incorrect.
On these, see Fisher; Müller, pp. 46–48; and E. Tietze-Conrat, “Ein unbekanntes Bildnis des Gerhard van Swieten,” Oud-Holland; nieuwe bijdragen voor de geschiedenis der Neder-landsche kunst, letterkunde, nijoerheid, enz.,XXXIX (1921), 49–51.
WienÖNB, 12713, fols. 124–25, I28–29.
Ibid., fols. 124–25,126–27.
Select letters of Voltaire, trans. and ed. Theodore Besterman (London, 1963), p. 20.
King, The medical world of the eighteenth century, p. 40.
Voltaire, Select letters, pp. 20–21.
Letter to Cox Macro, January 8, 1733, im Analecta Boerhaauiana, III, 32–35.
King, The medical world of the eighteenth century, p. 322.
See the article by Montreux in Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (Leiden, 1911–37), VI, cols. 832–37; and the biography by Julius Wiesner, Jan Ingen-Housz, sein Leben und sein Wirken als Naturforscher und Arzt (Vienna, 1905).
Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresia’s, VII, 335–36.
Briefe der Kaiserin Maria Theresia an ihre Kinder und Freunde, ed. Alfred von Arneth (4 vols., Vienna, 1881), IV, 233.
Ignaz Franz Mosel, Geschichte der Kaiserl. königl. Hofbibliothek zu Wien (Vienna, 1835), P. 146.
The best general history is still Mosel. A popular introduction is provided in the guide-book Die Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (3rd ed., Vienna, 1964) and there is a splendid
WienÖNB, Briefe: IX, 49 (May 25, 1764: “Note sur la pretension de Schröck”).
Ibid., e.g., September 24, 1754; October 1, 1754; July 30, 1755; December 29, 1758.
Ibid., June 5, 1768; and the final entries for 1768–1772.
WienHHSA, OMeA: 54 (May 2, 1758). The valets were charged with cleaning the library, maintaining the leather bindings, making a fire in the vestibule, and opening and closing the lecture room; see ibid.: 37 (January, 1746).
Ibid.: 51 (April 13, 1756). Another valet resigned when he married because he could not support a wife on such a salary (ibid.: 62 [April 12, 1763]).
Adam Kollar, Analecta monvmentorvm omnis aevi Vindobonensia (2 vol., Vienna, 1761–62) ; and Petri Lambecii Hamburgensis Commentariorum de Augustissima Bibliotheca Caesarea Vindobonensi (8 vols., Vienna, 1766–82; supplement 1790).
Although he had the honor of announcing plans for the Lambeck revision in 1759 to Maria Theresa; see Mosel, pp. 552–53.
WienÖNB, 51928 (summary table appears on p. 908); and Wied: NB, 12713, fols. 540–41, in which he reports the purchase to Sanchez.
WienHHSA, Staatskanzlei. Wissenschaft and Kunst 7 (to Gottlob Carolo Springsfeld, January I I, 1756).
LeidUB, Ruhn. 66 (April 19, 1758); and B. P. L. 338 (April 28, 1759).
LeidUB, March. 2 (February 28, 175o). (This is an extract copy of a lost original.)
LeidUB, Oud. 32 (Van Oudendorp to Van Swieten); Oud. 3, and B. P. L. 246 (five letters of Van Swieten to Van Oudendorp, from August 21, 1745 to August 11, 1751).
LeidUB, B. P. L. 246 (four letters of Gronovius to Van Swieten and three from Van Swieten to Gronovius, 1757–64).
LeidUB, B. P. L. 336 (three letters to Wesseling dated 1753 and 1754).
August Fournier, “Gerhard van Swieten als Censor,” Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Philos.-Hist. Classe), LXXXIV, Heft III (December, 1876), 400.
Ibid., p. 402.
E. C. van Leersum, “Gerard van Swieten en qualité de censeur,” Janus, XI (igo6), 387. It is impossible to tell precisely when Van Swieten began this record because the dates given are publication dates, not review dates (e.g., Ariosto, 1583).
Principally E. C. van Leersum, to whose works I am greatly indebted.
WienÖNB, 11934, fols. 277 verso, 243 recto, 242 verso, 243 verso, 246 verso; 355 verso;
Ibid., fols. 85 recto, 240 recto, 359 recto, 241 verso.
Ibid., fol. 344 recto; Van Leersum, Janus, XI, 457–59.
Ibid., fols. 392 verso, 24 verso; and Van Leersum, Janus, XI, 390.
Oeuvres completes, XLVI, 68 (from “De l’horrible danger de la lecture”).
Ibid., XIII, 239 (from “Epitre au roi de Danemarck Christian VII sur la liberté de la presse accordée dans tous ses etats, 177i”).
WienONB, 11934, fols. 486 recto, 357 verso, 23 verso, 30 verso, 326 recto.
Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresia’s, IX, 165.
“Van Swieten, censeur littéraire,” La chronique médicale, XII (1905), 400.
And, as we have seen, it was not because he was, as Morris, p. 195, claims, “a Free-mason and a Lutheran.”
Préclin and Jarry, XIX:2, 771–76. For Jansenism in Austria see especially Préclin and Jarry, XIX:1, 263–64, and XIX:2, 769–88; this is a concise history and contains extensive bibliographies. Also, Préclin, pp. 432–34.
Alfred von Arneth, ed., Maria Theresia und Joseph II, ihre Correspondenz (3 vols., Vienna, 1868), III, 352.
WienÖNB, 7237 P. I. 1: Remarques sur les vampyrisme de Silesie de l’an 1755... avec la [German] version par Mr. Antoine Hiltenprand. This manuscript is not in Van Swieten’s hand.
Two short articles from the traditional Viennese medical viewpoint can be suggested: Viktor Kreuzinger, “Zum 150. Todestage Gerhard van Swietens,” Janus, XXVI (1922), 177–89; and Neuburger, Janus, XXIII, 215–22. Also the section, pp. 196–204, on Van Swieten in Erna Lesky, “Osterreichisches Gesundheitswesen im Zeitalter des aufgeklärten Absolutismus,” Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, CXXII,Heft I (1959).
HagKB, 121 D2 56 (to an unknown person, Vienna, 1746) ; WienÖNB, 12713, fols. 124–25 (to Sanchez, April 25, 1746).
On the history of the university see the standard work by Kink and the address by Alfred von Arneth, Die Wiener Universität unter Maria Theresia (Vienna, 5879).
Cf. also WienÖNB, 13458 a curriculum of medical studies.
Boersma’s dissertation, already cited, is the best work available on De Haen. After Van Swieten’s death De Haen became a physician to the Empress but died only four years later.
That a Jansenist community developed in Vienna is quite true. The present use of the Chapel of St. Savior in the Old City Hall by the Old Catholics dates, however, from the nineteenth century (Moss, p. 294).
See the articles on Jacquin in Michaud, Biographie universelle (2nd ed., Paris, 1880), XX, 515–16; and in Wurzbach, X, 26–32.
In Wurzbach (“Steckhoven”), XXXVII, 278, he is said to have died around 1762; in Guglia, II, 192, in 1765. See also E. Pelinck, “Een bloemisterij en een speeltuin buiten de Koepoort,” Leiris jaarboekje, LIII (1961), 82–90.
Veendorp (who uses the 1782 death date), p. 542; also WienÖNB, 12713, fols.156–57.
According to Wiesner, p. 1g, Sir John Pringle, George III’s physician, who recom-mended Ingenhouz to Vienna, was a friend of Van Swieten.
WienHHSA, OMeA: 51 (March 29, 1758).
Ibid.: 58 (April t 7, t 761), in which he rejected special treatment for the guards.
An account of the most common diseases incident to armies, with the method of cure; trans.... to which is added: The practice of innocluation impartially considered, and the popular objections against it confuted, by John Andrew (Dublin, 1766).
On Van Swieten’s contribution see his own Commentaries, XVII, especially 291–305; his correspondence with Sanchez, WienONB, 12713, fols. 113–14, 121, 130–31, 154–55; his correspondence with Van Leempoel, reported with commentary by Van Leersum, Janus, XV, 345–62; and Lesky, pp. 154–74.
The Portuguese Sanchez (1699–1783), according to Michaud, XXXVII, 60g, and Nouvelle biographie générale (Paris, 1867), XLIII, cols. 254–56 studied at Salamanca and several other universities including Leiden under Boerhaave before becornming physician to Anne of Russia in 1733. He left Russia in 1747 and settled in Paris where he lived until his death.
Ibid., fois. 132–33, 138–39, and 156–57; on Francis’ three great collections (he also acquired a cabinet of coins and medals) see Alfons Lhotsky, Die Geschichte der Sammlungen (2 vols, in 3, Vienna, 1941–45), 11:2,420–33.
Ibid.: 46 (July 24, 1753); WienHHSA, OMaA, k. 640 (May 9, 1772).
Maria Theresa, Briefe, ed. Arneth, IV,245.
WienHHSA, OMaA, k. 640, par. 4. Störck (1731–1803), Van Swieten’s protégé whom De Haen bitterly opposed, succeeded as Protomedicus and served not only Maria Theresa in this capacity but the three emperors following; see Lesky, pp. 204–14.
Wienerisches Diarium (the government newspaper), 51, June 24, 1772; WienAW, B323b/11.
Maria Theresa, Briefe,ed. Arneth, IV, 239–40 (undated).
Ibid., pp. 236–37 (undated, assigned to May 7, 1756).
Ibid., p. 234 (undated, assigned to February 1753).
Ibid., p. 239 (undated, assigned to early December 1759).
Ibid., p. 244 (undated, assigned to March 15, 1766).
Ibid. (undated, assigned to March, 19, 1766).
Maria Theresa, Letters of an empress, ed. Pusch, p. 44.
Maria Theresa to Joseph, April 18 [1778], in Arneth, ed., Maria Theresia und Joseph II, ihre Correspondenz, II, 201.
Maria Theresa, Briefe, ed. Arneth, I, 14 (undated, assigned to August 1765). 17s Maria Theresa, Letters of an empress, ed. Pusch, p. 128.
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Brechka, F.T. (1970). Vienna. In: Gerard Van Swieten and His World 1700–1772. Archives Internationales D’Histoire Des Idées/International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3223-0_5
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