LEERSUM. E. C. VAN, Gerard van Swieten en qualite de censeur.

l

Gerard van Swieten (1700 – 1772) was a Dutch physician who from 1745 was the personal physician of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and transformed the Austrian health service and medical university education. Beside his medical activities, Gerard van Swieten was also active as a reformer. Especially the censorship was organised in a different way under his direction. He drove out the Jesuits that were in charge of the censorship before and carried out a centralisation of the censorship that was only partly successful. He also tried to use scientific and rational aspects for the judgement of literature. Especially important is his part in the fight against superstition during the enlightenment, particularly in the case of the vampires