“Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine,” a traveling exhibition opening at on October 6, 2009, uses materials from the National Library of Medicine to explore Harry Potter’s magical world and its roots in Renaissance traditions.

Exhibit panels feature the works of 15th- and 16th-century thinkers, such as naturalist Konrad Gesner, alchemist Nicolas Flamel and occultist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, and explore their understandings of natural philosophy, medicine and magic. The panels also highlight illustrations from Renaissance texts of some of the fantastic creatures and plants featured in “Harry Potter,” including basilisks, dragons, merpeople and mandrakes, and use them to explore the intersection between the novels and Renaissance thinkers, lore and practices.

For more information and a schedule of events, please visit the exhibit website.