Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 73-74. (Budapest, 1975)

SZEMLE KÖNYVEKRŐL - Ruttkay László: Jeszenszky (Jessenius) János és kora, 1566—1621 Budapest, 1971 — Junas, J.: Súbor 12 fotopohl'adnic Ján Jessenius 1566—1621

teljes mikrobiológus gárdája az elmúlt félévszázadból, annál kínosabb az olvasó számára, hogy a szovjet kutatás szinte teljesen elsikkad és csak a Sabin-cseppel kapcsolatos tömegkísérletekben szerepel a nevük. Az orvostörténész szempontjából hasonló tárgyú könyvek megjelentetése mégis nagyon értékesnek tekinthető. Reméljük, hogy hasonló tárgyú, színvonalú és kiállítású monográfiák megjelenését mind gyakrabban üdvözölhetjük. Kenéz János Ruttkay László : Jeszenszky (Jessenius) János és kora, 1566—1621. Szerk. Antall József, Birtalan Győző, Buzinkay Géza. Bev. Kapronczay Károly, Birtalan Győző. Budapest, 1971. Semmelweis Orvostörténeti Múzeum és Könyvtár. 296 p. Súbor 12 fotopohl'adnic Ján Jessenius 1566—1621. Uvod a scenár Jón Junas. Bratislava, 1971, Matica slovenská. Johannes Jessenius, a contemporary and friend of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler, was a tipical representative of the transition from the mediaeval to the modern world. He was still a member of the Latin-speaking universal world of learning and his frequent movings from one country to another suggest that he was equally at home in any of them, but in the course of his life he became increasingly attached both to his finally adopted land and to his ethnic background. He paid his life for his religion (not uncommon in the Middle Ages or even later), but also for his political convictions. Although he owes his fame (as far as he has any) to medicine, he was still a polymath trying his hand in philosophy and history as well. With some justification he is claimed by at least four modern nations: Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks and Germans, while neither the Austrians nor the Poles regard him as a foreigner. The 350th anniversary of his execution was observed by a detailed monograph in Hungary and by an album of photos in Slovakia. It was in 1926 that Friedel Pick, a teacher of the German university of Prague, published a definitive biography of Jessenius, concentrating mainly on the physician. Pick's thorough archival researches resulted in the correction of many previously accepted facts and misunderstandings. The Hungarian Ruttkay's present work (the product of a lifetime's interest and researches taking the author to several countries) confirms all the major findings of Pick, while showing new light on the Hungarian (Magyar) contacts of Jessenius, where his diplomatic mission to Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, to the Diet of Besztercebánya (today Banska Bistrica) is clearly the most important. Ruttkay tried to deal equally with Jessenius the doctor, the polymath-scholar and the politician, and this approach is the main virtue of the book. In the first part the medical aspect dominates. Jessenius studied in Italy (Padua) from Aquapendente, the successor of Vesalius. Here he found the most advanced school in anatomy and after completing his studies he started to diffuse this new knowledge on the other side of the Alps, where still Galen was the accepted authority. Jessenius' publicly performed autopsies in Dresden, Wittenberg and Prague did much to improve anatomical knowledge in Central Europe. Another