Ein Mensch namens Dürer

for research on these problems. But obviously Brechka is not familiar with the medicohistorical literature of the van Swieten era. The books of Hecker and Puschmann, which today are still indispensable, are not referred to, nor are A. v. Rosa's and Max Neuburger's important publications of original sources. Though Brechka quotes many times from van Swieten's letters to the Portuguese physician R. Sanchez, the standard work on Sanchez by David Willemse (Janus, Suppl., Bd. 6, Leiden, 1966) is unknown to him. But that Brechka remained ignorant of the existence of the manuscript of Egydius van Swieten (474 pages) is the gravest insufficiency of this book. This manuscript is a complete biography of van Swieten ready for the printer, and is kept in the Haus Hofund Staatsarchiv. Had the author found it, this work would have shown him all the various chapters of importance, even those which he himself did not recognize as such; and to some extent this manuscript would have been a substitute for the lost archive materials. We regret that a modem biography of van Swieten is still to be written, but in view of the difficult situation with regard to the source materials it is understandable. Brechka's book cannot fill the gap, although we have to be thankful for many interesting facts of van Swieten's Dutch period. It must also be acknowledged that Brechka has appreciated the importance of van Swieten's role as an intermediary of western European science and culture as well as his intellectual position between traditionalism and progress, but by his incomplete command of the available sources Brechka has unfortunately failed to give us the outstanding biography of Gerard van Swieten. ERNA LESKY