An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16030 entries, 14097 authors and 1943 subjects. Updated: October 1, 2024

SERVETUS, Michael [Miguel Serveto Conesa; also known as Miguel Servet, Miguel Serveto, Revés, or Michel de Villeneuve]

4 entries
  • 754

Christianismi restitutio.

Vienne, France: Balthasar Amoullet, 1553.

Contains (pp. 168-73) the first printed description of the lesser circulation. Because of the heretical nature of this book on the reform of Christianity, it was printed secretly and anonymously at Vienne, France. Copies had circulated in manuscript as early as 1546.

As a punishment for heresy, Servetus, a physician, was burnt at the stake at Champel, Geneva, by order of Calvin, soon after publication. Virtually the entire edition of 1000 copies was burned with him. Only three copies survive: Richard Mead’s copy in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, a copy in the Imperial Library, Vienna, and a copy lacking the title page and the first 16pp., said to be Calvin’s personal copy, at Edinburgh University Library.

Servetus's passage on the lesser circulation was first reprinted by William Wotton in Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (1694), pp. 211-12. Wotton provided the Latin text on pp. 230-31 of the second edition of Reflexions.... (1697), and in an added "Postscript" that prefixed the second edition he provided the first English translation on pp. xxvi-xxxii. Interestingly, Wotton printed Servetus's text from a transcription provided to him by Charles Bernard; neither Wotton nor Bernard were able to view a copy of the actual book from which it had been copied.

Servetus's complete work was reprinted in type facsimile in 1790 at Nuremberg. Servetus’s passages describing the pulmonary circulation are also translated in J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 44-45. See Fulton & Stanton, Michael Servetus, humanist and martyr. With a bibliography of his works, New York: Reichner, 1953.

Digital facsimile of the 1694 edition of Wotton from the Internet Archive at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1697 edition of Wotton at this link. Digital facsimile of the 1790 facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY, CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Cardiovascular System
  • 12698

An impartial history of Michael Servetus, burnt alive at Geneva for heresie.

London: Aaron Ward, 1724.

Authorship of this early English account of Servetus and his martyrdom for heresy has never been determined, according to Geoffrey Sill, "The authorship of An impartial history of Michael Servetus," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 87, 303-318. Sill indicates that a very few copies of this work exist with the title page dated 1723. Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.



Subjects: BIOGRAPHY (Reference Works) › Biographies of Individuals, CARDIOLOGY › History of Cardiology, PHYSIOLOGY › History of Physiology, RELIGION & Medicine & the Life Sciences
  • 12697

Historia Michaelis Serveti Quam praeside Io. Laur. Mosheimio...auctor Henricus ab Allwoerden.

Helmstadt: Stannus Buchholtz, 1727.

An early biographical account of Servetus and his martyrdom for heresy, prepared under the direction of Johann Lorenz von Mosheim whose Kaisergeschichte (2 vols, 1746-48) initiated the modern, objective historiography of heresy. Allwoerden's biography of Servetus was the most significant of the studies that revived interest in the 16th century martyr who described the lesser circulation.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: BIOGRAPHY (Reference Works) › Biographies of Individuals, CARDIOLOGY › History of Cardiology, PHYSIOLOGY › History of Physiology, RELIGION & Medicine & the Life Sciences
  • 11200

Michael Servetus, humanist and martyr. With a bibliography of his works. By John F. Fulton and Madeleine E. Stanton.

New York: Herbert Reichner, 1953.


Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Individual Authors, PHYSIOLOGY › History of Physiology, RELIGION & Medicine & the Life Sciences, WOMEN, Publications by › Years 1900 - 1999