You are here

MESMER, FRANZ ANTON (1734-1815)

  • In October 1992, the Library purchased the 250+ volume Frank A. Pattie collection of books by and relating to Franz Anton Mesmer and the notions of "animal magnetism" that became associated with him. Of the 250 titles, about 50 date from the period 1746 to 1800, about 120 date from 1801 to 1900, and the balance consists of twentieth century studies, chiefly of of Mesmer and his original tenets. [1992 list at this link.] Some of Mesmer's most important works (according to Robert Darnton in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography) are in the collection, including his Précis historique des faits relatifs au magnétisme animal (London, 1781) and his Mesmerismus oder System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie, und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus als die allegemine Heilkunde zur Erhaltung des Menschen edited by K.C. Wolfart (Berlin, 1814).

    For a study concentrating on mesmerism as a movement rather than as a philosophy, see Robert Darnton's Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, Mass., 1968).

    Frank A. Pattie (1901-1999) graduated from Princeton with a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1925. [Link] to an obituary published in 2000.

Research Tools for Printed Material (Books, Maps, Prints, etc.)