An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16061 entries, 14144 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: December 10, 2024

FRANCIS, William Willoughby

1 entries
  • 6772

Bibliotheca Osleriana. A catalogue of books illustrating the history of medicine and science, collected, arranged and annotated by Sir William Osler, Bt. and bequeathed to McGill University. [Edited by . W. W. Francis, R. H. Hill, Leonard Mackall, and Archibald Malloch.]

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929.

This bibliography of over 7,500 titles, edited by W. W. Francis, R. H. Hill, Leonard Mackall, and Archibald Malloch, is the catalogue of Osler’s magnificent library. For it Osler wrote an unfinished Introduction entitled "The Collecting of a Library." In that he indicated that formal planning for the catalogue with L. L. Mackall, W. W. Francis, and T. A. Malloch was underway before his death. The catalogue, published a full 10 years after Osler's death, follows Osler's distinctive organizational scheme. In many cases the annotations are based on notes that Osler wrote in his books, making this catalogue one of the most interesting to read of all annotated bibliographies in the history of medicine and science, and a reflection of Osler's bibliophilic taste and personality.

Fielding Garrison reviewed "The Osler Catalogue" in the Bulletin of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, 5, 860-863, September 1929. A digital facsimile of his review is available from PubMedCentral at this link.

On the 25th anniversary of the publication of the catalogue, which coincided roughly with the formal opening of the Osler Library at McGill, W. W. Francis published some brief, but distinctive comments on the catalogue and his role as chief editor in its production as "Osler's Catalogue", J. Hist. Med., 9, 464-465, 1954.

The Bibliotheca Osleriana was reprinted in 1969 with addenda and corrigenda, and a preface by Lloyd G. Stevenson, Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press. A digital facsimile of the 1969 edition is available from the Internet Archive at this link.

See also The Osler Library, Montreal: McGill University, 1979.

Regarding Osler as a Book Collector see:

    Regarding Osler's sense of humor see:
  • The Gay of Heart by Thomas S. Cullen
    Reprinted from Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 84 (1949): 41-45. Chicago: American Medical Association. Concerns Osler's sense of humor and habit of practical joking, both of which are often forgotten.


Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographical Classics, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Book Collecting, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Catalogues of Physicians' / Scientists' Libraries