Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), Swiss anatomist

Purchased from:

Charavay, Paris, June 1929 (acc.67380) and October 1928 / April 1929 (acc.63700); Sotheby's, London, November 1928 (acc.56133) and February 1931 (acc.56327); International Antiquariat, Amsterdam, date not noted (acc.91823); Bruscoli, Florence, 1932 (acc.65194); Provenance details not known (acc.14228, acc.13331).

Albrecht von Haller was born on 16 October 1708 in Bern. Sickly and precocious child, he started writing and translating poetry from an early age. He studied anatomy and medicine in Leiden under Boerhaave (1725-27), where he graduated. He travelled to London and Paris where he studied under Henri François Le Dran and Jacob Winslow. In 1728 he went to Basel to study higher mathematics under John Bernoulli, he also got interested in botany and wrote poems about the Alps.

In 1729 he returned to Bern and began to practise as a physician, doing botanical and anatomical research at the same time. In 1736 he became the chair of medicine, anatomy, botany and surgery in the newly founded University of Göttingen and a FRS in 1743.

In 1753 he resigned his chair and came back to Bern where he died on 12 December 1777.

At Wellcome Collection:

MS.6876; MS.5403/49; MS.7447/1-6; MS.7441/2; MS.7414/5; MS.7587/4-5; MS.7642/2.