What did a nobleman in the first half of the 19th century know about medicine? An attempt to reconstruct the collection of medical books in the catalogue of Jozef Esterházy’s noble library at Čeklís Manor (Bernolákovo) from 1816

In this study, we analysed part of the historical library catalogue from 1816, which was preserved as a list of books belonging to the younger relative and namesake of the library’s founder, Jozef Esterházy (1791–1847) in the Čeklís manor (now Bernolákovo, Slovakia). The catalogue was titled Catalogus librorum qui Cseklészii in superioris et inferioris illustrissimi domini Iosephi de comitibus Eszterházy bibliotheca 1816 continentur. We focus on the group of books devoted to medical topics and provide a brief content analysis of the publications we were able to identify. Our goal is also to consider how these books came to be in J. Esterházy’s library. In conclusion, based on the principle of pars pro toto, we will summarise the findings we were able to uncover about J. Esterházy’s library through our analysis of a selected portion of the catalog.