By Icely88 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
In honor of February
and Valentine’s day, we here at Special Collections and Archives thought it
might be fun to explore the different books we have about romance and love and
the human heart. This of course is a limited list, there are numerous other
books that will not be listed in this post that you should absolutely come
check out!
For all you biology
lovers, or those who just really want to know how the body works, there are a
couple of great books in our collection for you this holiday season. Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis... De humani
corporis fabrice libri septem. Cum indice rerum & uerborum memorabilium
locupletissimo, by Andreas Vesalius is a book about the human anatomy in the 1500s. It
is considered one of the most important books in medicine, and one of his most
famous works. Born in Belgium, Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of
modern human anatomy. Another fun read for the biology lover would be The
anatomy and physiology of the human body: containing the anatomy of the bones,
muscles, and joints, and the heart and arteries, by John Bell. If you’re
interested in biology and psychology Fay Bound Alberti’s Matters of the
heart: history, medicine, and emotion,
covering a range of everything from the physical body to hormones to disease--how romantic!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2g7EmNZb6Tw5vS7T2D_qdmibUB617DJLieyGuIlp98D1i5wvIgQPM_nIk2VXh2w7YYIFB8P9rNdM3e2Sjzrc7_3DQ06LsPX-7FZAnohvbnboUloHe6fH4FJm-qcI5QEFNr0ZSoU3xcNA/s1600/256px-BookOfLove.jpg)
By Jonathan Thorne (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
If you’re into the more
poetic side of Valentine’s Day, not to worry. Special Collections has books for
you. Everything ranging from love poems from places like Egypt (by Ezra Pound
and Noel Stock) and Greece (by Jacques Le Clercq or Corrinne Ondine Pache), a
collection of love stories from Brazil (by Fabio Lucas, Elizabeth Lowe, and
Edla van Steen), and finally Henrietta Temple. A love story by Benjamin Disraeli--a fascinating love story
(according to Goodreads) about the
plight of a man who must now marry well in order to save his family name and
pay off his debts.
For those of you who would like to
focus on relationships this February, whether that be friendships or romantic
relationships, we have (and again there is much more than this) Brotherly
love: freemasonry and male friendship in Enlightenment France by Kenneth
Loiselle, Secret love: the effects of secrecy on romantic relationships by Sara Dimitri, and Love
Between the Sexes by Henry Miller.
Any art or photography majors or
enthusiasts out there may enjoy our copy of The Face of Love.
Let us not forget those who (with
legitimate reason) believe that Valentine’s Day has become a celebration of
Hallmark rather than the Saint it was meant to honor. There are plenty of books
unrelated to love including, The practical feminism of Rebecca West : three
novels in the context of contemporary feminist theory by Elizabeth Schewe,
and Marxism & feminism by Charnie Guettel.*
There is something for everyone in
Special Collections, whether you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong
places or if romantic type books aren’t for you, you can find something with
us.
*This is not to say that I don’t believe
Feminists cannot celebrate Valentine’s Day, because it is most certainly your
right (as it is anyone’s) to celebrate or not celebrate what you wish. These
books simply came up when I searched key words related to this February
holiday.
--Brandi Russell, Trinity Student, Class of 2015
Works Cited
Florkin, M.D.
Marcel. "Andreas Vesalius (Belgian Physician)." Encyclopedia
Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.
Vesalius, Andreas. Andreae
Vesalii Bruxellensis ... De Humani Corporis Fabrice Libri Septem. Cum Indice
Rerum & Uerborum Memorabilium Locupletissimo. Venetiis: Apud Franciscum
Franciscium Senensem, Ioannem Criegher Germanum, 1568. Print.
"Librivox." LibriVox.
N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.
Disraeli,
Benjamin, and Philip Guedalla. Henrietta Temple: A Love Story.
London: Peter Davies, 1927. Print.