Catharina Th. Bakker receives the Lindeboom Prize for her book “De lijfarts van de koning”

During Frank Huisman’s farewell symposium on September 8, 2023, the medical historian and HHH member Catharina Th. Bakker received the eighth Gerrit Arie Lindeboom Prize from the chairman of the Historia Medicinae foundation, Peter de Leeuw, for her book The lijfarts van de koning (“The king’s personal physician”). The book recounts the adventurous life of Franz Joseph Harbaur (1776-1824). Congratulations to Catharina!

In the report of the Historia Medicinae foundation: “In this critical biography, which relies on an impressive amount of sources, Bakker takes the reader into a detailed and compelling description of the fate of its main character. She convincingly uses the social context of the court of King Wilhelm I at the end of the eighteenth century century and the beginning of the nineteenth century as a lens through which to reconstruct Harbaur’s life. On the one hand, the book describes the historically underexplored Romantic medicine of the time. On the other hand, the book tells a story of social mobility that characterized the social relations and revolutions of that time. Moreover, the book’s scope is not limited to the Low Countries, as Harbaur’s wanderlust contributes to situating the Netherlands in the context of a broader European story. This makes the book not just a medical historical biography but also a political historiography. The book is very beautifully constructed and written in such an enjoyable way that even non-medical historians will be fascinated by the read.”

The Gerrit Arie Lindeboom Prize, consisting of a certificate and a cash prize of € 2,500, has been awarded since 1985 by the Pieter van Foreest Foundation and the Historia Medicinae foundation, as a token of recognition for special merit in the field of medical history in and about the Netherlands or Dutch-speaking Belgium. Initially, the prize was awarded once every five years. From this year onwards, the prize will be awarded once every two years, alternatively to a publication or a dissertation published in the previous four years. For further information about the Lindeboom Prize: Prof Dr AC Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman, secretary of the Historia Medicinae Foundation, acnkruseman@hotmail.com.