Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 54. (Budapest, 1970)

TANULMÁNYOK - Kubinyi András: The Social and Economic Standing of Persons Concerned with Health Treatment in Buda at the Turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries (angol nyelvű közlemény)

The doctors of the Court and of the barons, of course, did not treat their masters exclusively. Other feudal lords, who did not keep physicians of their own, or wanted to consult another doctor, often turned to them. This supported also by the surviving letters of János Manardus, royal physician [9], The hermit Leo, physician of the Queen, is also sure to have treated the Lord Steward of his mistress, Jean de Gozon, as he was a witness at his will [10], And when the pregnant widow of the High Stewart sent an agent to France to act in the cause of her husband's inheritance, doctor of medicine Leonardo de Massen was a witness in drawing up the letter of credence—surely not just by accident. Two years before that it was he who treated the King when he suffered a stroke [11], The data quoted above, and many others to be read about in the relevant literature, all bear evidence to the fact that in the période under discusssion the majority of the physicians serving the sovereign, the prelates and the barons were of Italian origin. As shown by the case of the doctor of Hippolit of Este, they drew a high salary, or their advice was generously paid for. Therefore it is unlikely that the great majority of the citizens —apart from some rich ones— could take advantage of the services of these private doctors. It should be added that at that time doctors' fees were; generally very high, which is substantiated by the example of the capital of the neighbouring Austria [12]. In view of the high fees the question emerges: whether there could live in Buda doctors whose main task was to treat the citizens, and if could, what was their social position like; if could not, where could these citizens turn in case of an illness. This article aims at giving answer to these questions. The task is not an easy one. The archive of Buda was destroyed in the Turkish period, no Citizens' Book or assessment of taxes was left behind, and so the scarce evidence must be collected from the materials of other archives, knowing that however much effort is taken, we cannot gain a full picture. Therefore we must make use of the analogies one can draw from the past of the other Hungarian towns The major towns of the 15th and 16th centuries already kept physicians in their pay (corresponding to the municipal health officer of to-day), some of them belonging to the Church; e.g. at Pozsony they were local canons [13]. But in all probability these doctors, employed by the Town Council, treated mainly the more illustrious citizens, who ran the affairs of the town, and not the poverty-stricken plebeians. Besides them there is hardly any evidence of trained physicians. Even in an important town like Pozsony (to-day Bratislava, Czechoslovakia), which there is rich and complete archival material, at our disposal, we know of relatively few doctors [14]. Sopron has a similarly rich archive. Here we have data of only one physician, named Tamás, during the age of King Matthias. He was quite a respected, rich citizen, and as he was often exempted from paying town rates, he must have been a town-physician [15]. In the age of the Jagellonian kings we know of there doctors here, but they appear in the sources only for one year each. They did not reach the prestige of Doctor Tamás [16]. We believe then that one cannot expect to find a greater number of physicians in the capital either, apart from those in royal or baronial service. This view is