Albrecht von Haller
(Bern, 1708 – 1777)
Botanist, physician and bibliophile, Albrecht von Haller graduated in Leiden in 1727.
Physician in Berne since 1729, in 1735 he established a theatrum anatomicum for further training of doctors.
From 1736 to 1753 he taught anatomy, botany and surgery in Göttingen, and founded the Institute of Anatomy, the Botanical Garden and, in 1751, the Royal Society of Sciences of which he was president.
In Icones anatomicarum (Gottingae, Vendenhoeck, 1743-1756; location: 51 T 12) first described the circulation of blood in the human body and published his Primae lineae of physiologiae (Gottingae, Vendenhoeck, 1747; location: Corr. 87 D 40); he studied the properties of the nervous system and muscles, rejecting materialistic interpretations of Julien Offray de La Mettrie and studied the development of the embryos; in 1766 he published the Elementa physiologiae corporis humani (Lausanne, Bousquet, 1757-1766; location: 51 M 6).
At his death, the Austrian Government, through the mediation of count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz and to the interest of the same Joseph II, succeeded in July 1778 to buy the precious library.