Oct 14, 2021 - Sale 2582

Sale 2582 - Lot 208

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Rush, Benjamin (1745-1813)
Student Lecture Notes on Rush's The Theory and Practice of Physic.

University of Pennsylvania, circa 1789-1792.

Quarto format manuscript on laid paper, inscribed and dated on ffep: Ex Libris Johannis Bowie 1789; text consisting of 166 numbered and inscribed pages containing notes from thirty-four lectures by Doctor Rush, verso of final leaf with small diagonal inscription at the top outer corner that reads, "Rush 1792," followed by a six-page index, with additional notes of pharmaceutical preparations and titles of medical books dated to 1801 on flyleaves and pastedowns; bound in contemporary half sheep and mottled paper boards, damaged, front board detached, back board secured in homespun make-do style with loops of knotted light cord, library stamps and bookplate, 8 x 6 1/4 in.

The precise identity of the medical student who owned this book is unclear, although a likely candidate may be Dr. John Bowie (1769-1825) of Montgomery County, Maryland. Between 1789 and 1792 Dr. Rush was teaching his classes on the theory and practice of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and so we may infer that our note-taker was present in Philadelphia at that time. However, his actual identity is difficult to determine based on the available evidence.