International Symposium on Dr Axel Munthe

The second  international symposium on Dr Axel Munthe’s  life and work   will be held  on Saturday 13th of September at Hildasholm, Leksand, Sweden. 

From the Royal College of Physicians in London, Professor Ian McDonald (adjunct Prof Dept. Neurology, Yale University also Prof. Emeritus of Clinical Neurology, University College London will be speaking on the relationship between Dr Axel Munthe and the famous Professor Charcot of the Salpetriere in Paris.

The eminent architect, writers and former curator of Villa San Michele, Levente Erdeos will be giving a talk on “The makings of Villa San Michele, some connections to contemporary art and thinking”

Other distinguished speakers include the Swedish author, Bengt Jangfeldt,Dr Peter Cottino from Capri, Mårten Lindståhl, Sweden, Dr.Katriona Munthe-Lindgren from London, and Prof.Alden Smith, Department of Classics, Baylor University Texas, USA.

When Munthe received his medical degree in Paris in 1880 at the age of 23, he was the youngest Doctor of Medicine in Europe. His thesis was on the subject of gynaecology and obstetrics. Munthe had, however, been deeply impressed by the influential Professor Charcot in the field of neurology, and therefore already at an early stage was greatly interested in general diseases.

In the same year he opened his first practice in Paris, which was frequented mostly by members of the large Scandinavian colony of artists. He lived intermittently in Italy where he helped the cholera-stricken population (1880 on the island of Ischia, 1883 in Naples).

In 1887 Axel Munthe left Paris and settled in Anacapri where he worked as general practitioner. In 1890 he opened a practice in Rome where he was consulted by foreign dignitaries resident in Rome, as well as by Italian patients. He was appointed physician to the royal Swedish household to care for Crown Princess Victoria, later queen, from 1892 until her death in 1930.

During the First World War Axel Munthe served as a physician in the British Red Cross at the front in France. He described his activities in the book, Red Cross & Iron Cross, which was published in London in 1916.

Axel Munthe became a legendary physician who always gave free medical treatment to the poor. For some time he maintained a hospice for elderly, destitute people in a castle outside Rome. He was an outstanding psychologist who was extremely restrictive in prescribing treatment by drugs. The preferred forms of treatment prescribed by Munthe included hypnosis and therapy through music.

The Story of San Michele entirely overshadows all other publications by Axel Munthe, although it includes much of what he had already written earlier. His very first publications covered a number of travel discourses which appeared in the Stockholm newspaper, Stockholms Dagblad, and which described his experiences of relief work during the cholera epidemic in Naples. These discourses came out in book form in Sweden in 1885, in England in 1887, and later in 1910 in Italy. Subsequently he wrote a number of other papers and short stories which were later collected and published: for example, Små Skizzer, published in Stockholm in 1888; Vagaries, London 1898; Memories and Vagaries, London 1908; Bref och Skizzer, Stockholm 1909; En gammal bok om manniskor och djur, Stockholm 1931; Vagabondaggio, Milan 1933; Ein altes Buch von Menschen und Tieren, Leipzig 1934, etc.

Hildasholm, the house that Axel Munthe built for his bride in 1910-1911, was designed by the architect Torben Grut (who would later create the Stockholm stadium). It lies amongst the trees on the edge of Lake Siljan in the heart of Dalarna.

 Surrounded by gardens and pine woods it looks over the peaceful
waters and comprises Swedish, English and Italian furniture and paintings
from the 17th, 18th and 19th century Europe. It is still used by the family
while also being opened as a museum for the public during the summer
months. 

The gardens were created by Axel’s wife Hilda on the promontories
and in the ravines surrounding the house where suddenly the well ordered
English garden breaks into the wild and romantic natural environment.

For a  full programme of the symposium please contact:.Pia Thunholm
Stiftelsen Hildasholm,
Box 64
S-793 22 Leksand,
Dalarna, Sweden
Tel. +46 (0)247 10062
E-mail: munthes@hildasholm.org
http:// www.hildasholm.org

I hope this is of interest and would be grateful if the information was posted on your web. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.