Introduction:

The social history of written culture reflects the reading and writing habits and practices that allow us to appropriate the texts to build our sense of community. Hence, the library of individuals reflects their reading habits, their way of imagining nature, their relationship with political and religious power, and their involvement with society.

Objective:

To interpret Antonio Nariño’s reading practices by means of the medical books in his library to approach the way he developed a presumably effective vaccine against smallpox.

Materials and methods:

We made a bibliographic description of the documents “Confiscación y embargo de bienes de Nariño” and “Papeles, libros y bienes de Sebastián López Ruiz en poder de Nariño” from the Nariño Archive of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Results:

Out of the 39 books about Medicine (seven treatises on surgery, 12 compendia of practical exercise, 11 disease manuals, seven compendia of medical topics, and two books on childbirth) three were smallpox treatises.

Conclusion:

Antonio Nariño’s medical and scientific practice reflects his reading and writing habits, his skills and competences, and his cultural attitudes, which promoted the notion of public health. The study of Nariño as a self-taught physician allowed for relating the scientific production techniques (development of the vaccine) and the cultural materiality (state of the art) based on the medical texts in his library.

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