Kinetic jottings: rare and curious books in the library of the old Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics. An illustrated and annotated catalogue

Medical gymnastics, the practice of curing disease or promoting health by muscular movement, has a long history. It goes back to the Classical ideal of humoral balance, according to which exercise dried and purged the heavy, soggy body that resulted from too much food. This concept of harmonious human excellence was re-created in the Renaissance, and a vogue for self-improvement developed. Inevitably, this became a vogue for the improvement of others, particularly children. There arose a mechanical science of movement, as knowledge of the musculoskeletal system became more sophisticated. The arts of orthopaedics and physiotherapy were born, and the deformed were reformed by manipulation. At the same time there was an increasing eamestness about the exercising of the already fit, and first military cadets and schoolboys and then the general public were jollied into mass gymnastics. There was a particular concern with the health of the round-shouldered, palecheeked, shallow-chested, city-dwelling, offilceworking masses, and they were encouraged to exert themselves and breathe deeply. The exercise culture of today began to take shape. Anyone who joins aerobics classes in their lunch hour or goes swimming after work should browse through this catalogue and ask themselves how they came to be doing such a peculiar thing. Popular medical gymnastics is above all the creation of P H Ling (1766-1805), the founder of what became known universally as "Swedish gymnastics". Medically untrained, but inspired by his own self-cure and equipped with the sort of windswept, burning-eyed intensity of personality that inspires others, he set up the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, which became a Mecca for enthusiasts and a training ground for disciples. At length the Institute evolved into a general sports training college, Idrottshogskolan. Its library was absorbed and settled into the sediment. This catalogue is the result of what its compiler describes as archaeological excavations into this sediment. The result of the dig is a fascinating descent into the story of human preoccupation with our own bodies and what can or should be done with them. The book is more than a mere inventory: its chronological arrangement and discursive notes create a sense of narrative. The illustrations, though not glossy, are generous and well-chosen. A very broad range of material is covered: acrobatics, dance, fencing, general anatomy and physiology, military education, and the Stockholm Olympics of 1912-a heroic poster for which forms the frontispiece. The crucial texts in the development of medical gymnastics are well-represented, including those of Ling himself. There are also standard treasures of Vesalian anatomy, and some curiosities such as the great Prussian gym-master J C F Guts Muths' book on wood-turning and C H Liedbeck's Description of the vibrator ("likely to satisfy any just claims upon a good vibration machine"). There are a few significant gaps: for example, there is no edition of Galen's De sanitate tuenda, which held sway over all regimenical literature until the eighteenth century. The selection is of course based on what is found in the library and is "just designed to give a glimpse". In fact, however,