Born Today – Govard Bidloo

Govard Bidloo

Govert or Govard Bidloo (Amsterdam, 12 March 1649 – Leiden, 30 March 1713) was a surgeon, anatomist, court physician, professor, writer of stage work and librettist. Around 1670 he was initially trained as surgeon as a pupil of the anatomist Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731)

Bidloo studied medicine and graduated at the University of Franeker on May 8, 1682. In 1688 he became lecturer in dissection and anatomy in ‘s Gravenhage (The Hague). In 1690 he was head of the Dutch health service then three years later in England. During the visit of Stadholder Willem III to The Hague (February 1691) for talks with the anti-French League, Bidloo published  Departing from his Majesty William III, King of Great Britanje etc. in Holland. Romeyn de Hooghe designed a large number of decorations and made the prints in the book. In 1690 Bidloo and Romeyn de Hoogheproduced a number of pamphlets against the mayors of the city of Amsterdam. Bidloo lived in Golden Bay, at Herengracht 455.

In 1694  Bidloo was professor of surgery and anatomy at the University of Leiden until 1701 when he was inivited to be court physician by King Willem III in London . The Stadholder king died in his arms (or those of Hans Willem Bentinck?). In 1702 he was again professor in Leiden, where he died March 30, 1713. Bidloo was succeeded by Herman Boerhaave.

Nicolaes Bidloo, his son, became personal physician to Peter the Great in 1702.

Govard Bidloo published Anatomia Humani Corporis (Dissection of the Human Body) in Amsterdam in1685. For the time, the book was considered an innovative anatomical atlas, with beautiful drawings by Gerard de Lairesse.

(All information and images adapted from the Dutch and English versions of Wikipedia)

Photo Album – The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Willem van der Meer

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer by Pieter van Mierevelt (1596-1623). Delft.

Why Leeuwenhoek?

As an amateur microscopist I have long known of the contribution that Antoni van Leeuwenhoek made to the science of microbiology. During my last summer holiday my family and I were able to visit Delft, the city of my father. I was hoping to find a museum to commemorate the man and his great contribution to history. I was soon to be disappointed – except for a few faded panels and his grave markers there is little in Delft to show what a magnificent force he was in the early scientific world.

I want to use this blog to highlight the influence of Leeuwenhoek and the other scientists of Holland’s Golden Age. These early pioneers still influence our thoughts, inform our reason and delight us with their tenacity. It was people such as these that created the period we know as the Renaissance, the precursor to the Enlightenment – where scholasticism and faith give way to experimental science and reason. This blog will serve as an on-line museum and a central dispersion point for information on the Dutch Golden Age of Science.

The painting (1681) shows the Delft anatomist Cornelis s’Gravesande (1631 – 1691), as he gives a lesson. On his right is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Painting by Cornelis de Man (1621 – 1706). The painting hangs in Het Prinsenhof, Delft.