"The New York Academy of Medicine was founded in 1847, for the purpose of promoting the science and art of medicine, the promotion of public health and medical education, and the maintenance of a library of medicine. It is a pleasure to record that through the years it has remained true to these founding functions, and it has played a very important role in the successes of modern medicine, particularly in the United States"1.
A plaque erected in 1957 by The New York Community Trust tells the story of the building: "This structure, a gift from the Carnegie Foundation to the New York Academy of Medicine (founded in 1847), was designed in romanesque style by York & Sawyer and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son in 1925-26.
It was cited by the Municipal Art Society ans Society of Architectural Historians in 1957 fo the merit of its architecture.
In the lunette above the entrance door Hygieia and Asclepius are represented. Inscribed above the front entrance is the Latin motto “Post Mille Secula Præscindetur Occasia Aliquid Adjiciendi,” meaning “He who shall be born a thousand ages hence will not be barred from his opportunity of adding something further”2.
A Latin inscription with two aphorisms by Hippocrates and the year of foundation of the Academy runs along the entire facade of the building at the level of the main floor.
On the Academy's window lintels of the ground floor some suggestive latin sentences can be read, such as the often quoted remark of Celsus that "to determine the cause of a disease often leads to the remedy" (Et causae quoque estimatio saepe morbum solvit)"3. In the following pictures they are ordered from left to right.
More information can be retrieved from the Academy official website.
- Photos by Luca Borghi ti.supmacinu|ihgrob.l#| (July 2017)
- Locate the item on this Google Map
Related items