“Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine” is now on display in the Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Hershey. This traveling exhibit was developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health and will be on display through December 5. Learn more about the exhibit on the NLM website.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the library, in partnership with the College of Medicine Department of Humanities, will sponsor the November 2015 First Friday Presentation: “Magic Words/ Magic World: Early Modern Medicine and Harry Potter,” at noon, on Friday, Nov. 6, in Room C2860. Readers worldwide are familiar with J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels as a series of magical adventures. This presentation will examine the medieval and Early Modern medical practices that appear in the Harry Potter series, from alchemy and astrology to healing chants and botanicals. See the library’s news and events webpage for more information.

Illustration of distillation equipment. Ambroise Paré, Les Oeuures d’Ambroise Paré, 1585 — see https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/harrypottersworld/potions.html