Harvey, William, 1578-1657; Physicians -- England -- Biography
The kindness of Professor George Darwin has enabled me to reproduce
this "stemma" from a photograph made for the Cambridge Antiquarian
Society's publications. The memorial consists of an oval shield with a
florid indented border having a head carved at each end of the oval.
The shield shows a right arm which issues from the sinister side of the
oval and holds a lighted candle round which two serpents are twined.
Traces of the original colouring (a red ground, a white sleeved arm,
and green serpents) remained on one of the monuments, and both have
now been accurately restored by the Master and Fellows of Gonville and
Caius College, Cambridge. A coloured drawing of the tablet has also
been made at the expense of the Royal College of Physicians of London,
and is now in their possession. A replica of this drawing was
presented by the University Senate of Padua to Gonville and Caius
College on the occasion of the dinner given in their hall in June,
1893, to commemorate the admission of Harvey to the college on the 31st
of May, 1593.
It appears, therefore, that Harvey was a member of the more
aristocratic Universitas Juristarum at Padua, which admitted a
few medical and divinity students into its ranks, and that he
early attained to the position of conciliarius of his nation. As a
conciliarius Harvey must have taken part more than once in one of the
most magnificent ceremonials which the university could show--the
installation of a new Rector. The office of Rector was biennial, the
electors being the past rectors, the councillors, and a great body of
special delegates. The voting was by ballot, a Dominican priest acting
as the returning officer. The ceremony took place in the Cathedral
in the presence of the whole university. Here the Rector elect was
solemnly invested with the rectorial hood by one of the doctors, and
he was then escorted home in triumph by the whole body of students,
who expected to be regaled with a banquet, or at the least with wine
and spices. Originally a tilt or tournament was held, at which the new
rector was required to provide two hundred spears and two hundred
pairs of gloves; but this practice had been discontinued for some
time before Harvey came into residence. A remarkable custom, however,
remained, which allowed the students to tear the clothes from the back
of the newly elected rector, who was then called upon to redeem the
pieces at an exorbitant rate. So much license attended the ceremony
that a statute was passed in 1552 to restrain "the too horrid and
petulant mirth of these occasions," but it did not venture to abolish
the time-honoured custom of the "vestium laceratio."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account