1. Great Books Index-William Gilbert
After taking a medical degree in 1569, Gilbert acquired a distinguished reputation as a doctor. He was appointed personal physician to Elizabeth I. His masterpiece, De magnete , was published in London in 1600. Galileo declared that he received a copy from a philosopher who feared that if he kept it on his bookshelf it would contaminate the other books with its new ideas. Many of the letters that Galileo exchanged with Fra' Paolo Sarpi and with G. F. Sagredo reveal the great interest that the scientific community had for the book of William Gilbert at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Galileo frequently underlined the striking combination of genuinely novel experimental results with credulousness in the writings of Gilbert.

2. William Gilbert - Royal College of Physicians
William Gilbert was born in Colchester, England, into a middle class family of some wealth. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1558 and obtained an B.A. in 1561, an M.A. in 1564, and finally an M.D. in 1569. Upon receiving this last degree, he became a senior fellow of the college, where he held several offices. Gilbert set up a medical practice in London in the 1570s and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians (the body that regulated the practice of medicine in London and vicinity). He held a number of offices in the college and in 1600 was elected president. He never married. Gilbert's De Magnete ("On the Magnet") was published in 1600 and quickly became the standard work throughout Europe on electrical and magnetic phenomena. Europeans were making long voyages across oceans, and the magnetic compass was one of the few instruments that could save them from being hopelessly (and usually fatally) lost. But little was known about the lodestone (magnetic iron ore) or magnetized iron. Gilbert tested many folk tales. Does garlic destroy the magnetic effect of the compass needle? More importantly, he made the first clear distinction between magnetic and the amber effect (static electricity,

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