Eskind Biomedical Library highlights world of Harry Potter

Vanderbilts Eskind Biomedical Library is currently hosting a special exhibit, Harry Potters World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine, which will run through November 12.

Sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, the exhibit honors science, magic, and alchemy, connecting to Harry Potters world, which has magical roots in alchemy traditions of the Renaissance era. The exhibit presents books by the sixteenth century alchemist Paracelsus, the barber surgeon Ambrose Par, plus other illustrated works of anatomy, mythology, and botany. Old surgical kits scatter the tables, as do pharmaceutical bottles and blood-letting bowls, which were used when removing patients blood as a form of treatment.

This exhibit also includes a hands-on portion, which includes a mortar and pestle, hand-weights, an old microscope, and four batches of herbs much like the ones Harry Potter uses in his potion classes.

Vanderbilt supplants this exhibit with materials from its own collection, including a sixteenth century book on surgery, one of the oldest within Vanderbilts library system.

The exhibit is open from 9 am to 5:30 p.m. in the Historical Collections room on the third floor of the library, and includes six stations: Herbology, Potions, Monsters, Fantastic Beasts, Immortality, and Magical Creatures.

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Eskind Biomedical Library highlights world of Harry Potter