The Shared Destiny of Bach and Handel

Born in the same year in the same country, the two geniuses of Baroque music, Bach and Handel, shared a similar unfortunate fate without ever meeting each other. As Bach, suffering from cataracts in his later years, was recommended the same doctor who, according to legend, had also treated Handel, who lost his vision entirely in his old age. Sir John Taylor, rumored to have been the eye doctor for King George II of England, traveled from city to city with a carriage adorned with eye images and the inscription "Qui dat videre dat vivere" (He who gives sight gives life), performing cataract surgeries. Tragically, after the patients realized they had gone blind upon removing the eye bandages post-surgery, Taylor had already left the city. Taylor, who began his professional career in Switzerland, openly admitted that hundreds of surgeries he performed there resulted in blindness. Bach and Handel both lost their vision due to cataract surgeries performed by the same eye doctor.