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)

of the apothecarians even added to the weight of their social position. That is why one of the central apothecaries of Buda became the scene of an exciting event during the funeral of King Ulászló II (1516). The servants of István Báthory of Somlyó began to chase a nobleman called Gáspár Body, who took refuge in the apothecary of the Buda aromatarius, György [91], and the latter had his assistants, Gáspár Varasdi and András Wenczoni closed the door. Finally, when the palatinus was given word about the "rebellion", he had Body fetched to him by two of his men. By then the men of Báthory were already on the point of breaking the door. Later a canon of Pécs and four noblemen, as well as other barons, nobles, the judge of Buda, and several burghers, including some of Italian and Spanish origin, were called to give testimony on the case [92]. Presumably most apothecaries were to be found in the row of houses named after them, at least until now there have been no evidence of any "apothecary" found elsewhere. Consequently there could not be many apothecaries in the town, as their row was relatively short and

—as shown by the evidence—it was not even inhabited by them exclusively. That in turn suggests that there was no strong competition among the not very numerous apothecarians, who could thus easily grow rich. That was faciliated, too, by the fact that they were selling not only medicaments. It must be added that if in Vienna they could become serious rivals for the physicians, they could spend even more of their time with "curing" in Buda, were physicians were scarcer. In the other towns of Hungary there is even less data on apothecarians [93]. So perhaps ot is no mere chance that we are unable to quote any sources on their guild-organization, which, of course, is still not sufficient evidence to claim that they had no guilds, or any organization safeguarding their interests [94]. Their financial position is well reflected in the above mentioned tithe-lists. In 1505 four apothecarians, Bálint, Mihály, Péter, and János Smelczer vintaged altogether 1231 köböl, while the first three around 1510 614 köböl wine, which means that on the avarage one apothecarian vintaged 308 köböl in 1505, and 205 in 1510. That shows that their financial situation was even higher than that of the relatively well-to-do barbers [95]. So they came close to the patricians. The data available on the Buda apothecarians in the pre-Mohács decades really indicate that they belonged to the leading strata of the town. Most noted among them was undoubtedly the already mentioned Mihály (Michael Apotecarius, or Aromatarius)

, whose vintage on Hill Kegler was recorded as 271 köböls in 1505 and 381 around 1510. In 1508 his son, Boldizsár matriculated at the Vienna university [90]. In 1510 and in 1518 Mihály was elected judge of the town, in 1517 judge of finances, but even in the council year of 1530 (a year's period following the election on 24th April) he was town magistrate [97], In 1532 his vineyard on Hill Szakadat (present-day Sasad) is mentioned [98]. On 28th February 1539, he is no longer alive, his widow is called Apollónia [99]. He was not the first and only apothecarian elected to the twelve-member Buda council. Already in 1402 we can read of councillor János Apotecarius [100]. A certain Bálint (Valtin Apoteker) also belonged to the council in 1509 [101]..