Joseph Frank Collection
In 1826 by dictating his will, the german doctor left instructions to devolve his substances to the University Library of Pavia in order to buy “all those books in practical medicine and pathologic anatomy that the Library could not afford by its own means along with practical medical periodicals”.
In 1857, 31 years after the death of Frank, his legacy ensured the Library a substantial income so that the then director Giovanni Maria Bussedi decided to use it not only for the purchase of medical subject but also for those more generally scientific. Frank also added in his will the instruction to leave his books to the Library of Medicine. In this way the University was enriched with more than 1,000 volumes. The texts, mainly of medical topic, are published between 1628 and 1842 and have a notable language extension: Italian, German, Latin, French and English. Of particular interest the files containing handwritten excerpts of studies completed by Frank during his career: Precetti di medicina pratica universale published in Naples in 1841-42 from typography Sebezio (location: 61 O 14) and Praxeos medicae universae praecepta (Leipzig, Kuehn, 1826; location: 57 S 1).
Rather rich is also the periodic collection from Frank:
- "Annali universali di medicina" (location: 172 A 1 F)
- "Biblioteca italiana ossia giornale di letteratura scienze e arti" (location: 172 A-D 1)
- "Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst" (location: 166 A-D)
- "Bulletin des sciences medicales" (location: 196 B).
The fund is described in the alphabetical catalog by authors and anonymous works, within the library
cards available at the entrance of the library.