The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration

I bought this based on the great reviews ( as always, thanks fellow amazonies) and I am fascinated by this stuff. I have dozens and dozens of old, old medical books, medical anomaly books, forensic books but this one added a whole other level to it for me - the human faces, looking these horrifically ill people in the eyes, learning that the woman on the front cover caught and died of cholera in *4 hours* but also seeing her drawn, and then compared, when she was well. how beautiful she was. how fleeting every moment is. the pictures are remarkable and most look like photographs, they're so detailed and clear. its hard to look at. the text is filled with medical history- dissection was outlawed except on criminals and...orphans. the archaic,, often sadistic cures that were high medicine at the time. how medicine evolved, why, who. Heartbreaking, humanizing,, painstakingly thorough. This isnt a ghoul-factor book - its an education. my only complaint is the way the drawings are labeled. they usually have their titles and explanations several pages away, devoting entire pages to them or several on a page. they're then listed as "previous overleaf", "above right overleaf" etc. I found it irritating at times to have to flip back and forth to read what I was seeing and even then at times it was confusing to figure out what was what because there are a LOT of drawings. I would have liked the explanation on the page with the graphic. Extra cool are old Chinese watercolors of faces with pustules, every one being made by raising the paper itself. an incredible book that will show the horrors of illness, but you can't look away because it's incredible art.

Lovely book, for the doctor, medical student, book collector, artist or art lover. Nicely bound, wonderful illustrations, and thorough discussion. Nice paper. It's not "just a picture book".

This book is so neat! It was a perfect add on gift for a friend's present!

Received as a birthday present and I've not been able to stop looking at it! The illustrations are beautiful and so detailed. The paper is high quality and feels wonderful when you're turning the pages. I plan to put it on my living room bookshelf if I can put it down long enough. I saw a view reviews about not a lot of information, more pictures than anything and yes, that is true but, the pictures are so lovely and most of the ailments depicted we now know a lot about so there does not need to be more information really. It is am expensive boom but the quality makes it worth it. It's really a wonderful book

If you've gotten this far over to the weird medical illustrations books just know you have found the one you are looking for. The whole series is fantastic. The Smile Stealers and Crucial Interventions are well worth a look as well. It is a fantastic stand alone art book but it also holds its own for being a thoroughly delightful romp through medical documentation. It is just gorgeous.

The Sick Rose is a beautifully gruesome and strangely fascinating visual tour through the golden age of medical illustration before color photography. The nineteenth century experienced an explosion of epidemics such as cholera and diphtheria, driven by industrialization, urbanization and poor hygiene. In this pre-color-photography era, accurate images were relied upon to teach students and aid diagnosis. The best examples, featured here, are remarkable pieces of art that attempted to elucidate the mysteries of the body, and the successive onset of each affliction. Bizarre and captivating images, including close-up details and revealing cross-sections, make all too clear the fascinations of both doctors and artists of the time. Barnett illuminates the fears and obsessions of a society gripped by disease, yet slowly coming to understand and combat it. The age also saw the acceptance of vaccination and the germ theory, and notable diagrams that transformed public health, such as John Snow's cholera map and Florence Nightingale's pioneering histograms, are included and explained. Organized by disease, The Sick Rose ranges from little-known ailments now all but forgotten to the epidemics that shaped the modern age. It is a fascinating Wunderkammer of a book that will enthrall artists, students, designers, scientists and the incurably curious everywhere. With illustrations taken from some of the world’s rarest medical books, The Sick Rose forms an unforgettable and profoundly human reminder of mankind’s struggle with disease. This volume is highly recommended to all who are interested in medical history.

Wonderful book. Perfect not only for the historical significance but also for personal knowledge of what to look for in maladies.

Book itself came in perfect shape. Love the way it's laid out. It's like a medical text that has been simplified. Great illustrations and Lovely material on the covers. Great read. It's worth about 50 dollars in my opinion.

This gorgeously designed little 7" x 10" book, 'little' being relative to typically oversized art monographs, is one of the most paradoxically appealing and revolting releases of the year. I have long admired D.A.P.'s commitment to utilizing the highest-quality materials and binding in every book they publish, and The Sick Rose is no exception. The writing is informative and impeccably researched, delving into the gruesome history of anatomical research in a professional manner that walks the tightrope between sensationalistic indulgence of morbid fascination on the one side, and overly clinical jargon designed to emotionally distance the reader on the other. The earliest years of what would become modern medicine were remarkable in the lengths these 'Resurrectionists' went to in obtaining corpses for study. For a time, condemned criminals were routinely sentenced to death and public dissection, their bodies donated to the Medical Institutes. This practice was ended in the early 19th Century, but parliament allowed that any person found dead without identification and/or someone willing to claim their body would be fair game for anatomical research. This amounted to depriving the poorest classes of any guarantee that they would be given a decent burial, and many were outraged that poverty alone meant they might be dissected publicly like criminals. 'Burial Insurance' became a popular method of avoiding the indignities that might have been inflicted on their bodies. As test subjects became scarce, members of the nascent medical community were complicit in murder, paying money to the 'Ghouls' that stalked the harbors for departing ships, where they would kill drunken sailors not likely to be missed and deliver them to the Anatomists. This Black Market trade in lives was rooted in an upper class arrogance that saw the poor as a drain on society. This arrogance also extended to their belief in the supreme importance of their research. A worthless beggar or drunk was far more valuable dead, perhaps providing them with the knowledge of how to end smallpox, syphilis, cancer, even death itself (Hence the term 'Resurrectionist'). As fascinating as the history of medicine is, the artwork, used to document and compare ailments in the age before cameras, is truly stunning; first, because the level of technical ability is of a very high order, and second, because many of the symptoms depicted are horrifying, disfiguring the subjects to a point that is near monstrous. The fact that the artists rarely depersonalize their subjects, but instead make us see and feel for their suffering, forcing us to wonder who these poor people were, makes The Sick Rose one of the most powerful and poignant artbooks I've read. Once again, I have to comment on the design and layout, which is some of the best work I've seen. The cover image, the turquoise cloth spine and paint-embossed titles, the color endpapers which turn a blown-up detail of a torso covered in lesions into a random design element -- everything offers proof of the thought, labor and expense that went into all 260 pages of this fine volume. Not for the squeamish, but that should be obvious. Highest Recommendations.

Un libro con unas ilustraciones maravillosas. No sé por qué lo imaginaba pequeñito y la verdad es que es bastante grande, con unos acabados de buena calidad y estética retro en consonancia con su contenido. Muy contenta con la compra, de hecho ya me he agenciado los otros libros restantes de la serie.

A really wonderful book. Beautifully illustrated and full of fascinating historical information.

I bought this book as a present for a nurse. I came across it in a bookshop and thought it was the perfect fit. It’s a beautifully printed book with fascinating content, though definitely not for everyone. The historical medical illustrations of diseases are unusual, sometimes unsettling, but incredibly interesting. A very unique and thoughtful gift for someone in the medical field. Maybe not a coffee table book, it would scare your guests!

Sehr hochwertig, tolle Bilder