Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

I. The Development of Pharmaceutical Instruments The manifold material of laboratory instruments from the sphere of practical pharmacy is presented in tow show-cases

: a vertical and a horizontal one (Fig. 2i.). These objects - valuable also as pieces of fine workmanship - are related mostly to sclaing (e.g. balances, weights, casket) and dosing scoops. Among the coins revealing alchemists' marks and weights of traditional shaping there is a weight-holder made of bronze in the firm of a foal's head having a banded lid. It contained the bucket-shaped weights made of brass and bronze which fitted into each other (Fig. 22.) Mention should be made of a mortar made of bronze with handles in the form of a dolphin bearing the date 1648 (date of the Piece of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years War). Its late-renaissance style is already coloured by early-baroque elements. This same transitory style characterizes the scoop made of bronze in the form of a heart. The singlearmed Roman balance made in the 18th century preserves strictly the traditional form of its Roman predecessors (Fig. 23). In the horizontal show-case, on the right, there is a bronze mortar bearing the date 1665 and in from of it there is another, unfortunately damaged one, from the 16th century. Among them some scoops, melting pots and salve-boxes are displayed, the latter probably used for taking away the prepared medicine. Below there are glass laboratory instruments to be seen (e. g. distilling cap, boiling flasks of double eyes, etc.) (Fig. 24.) dating from the iyth-i8th centuries and made by all probability in the glassworks of Hungary. 2. Faience Apothecary Jars Five small show-cases present maiolica jars, the products of the Italian pottery art from the period of the renaissance. (The name faience comes from Faenza, a town in Italy, where tin glazed jars of high artistic quality were produced from the 14th century onwards. The term maiolica can be traced back to the Isle of Mallorca that played an intermediatory part in the import of the jars glazed with Spanish-Moorish lustre technique from Spain to Italy.) The non-transparent white tin glaze was an excellent back-ground for the rich colours of the Italian schools of painting - refined in the service of Church art so they appeared in their full brilliance on the apothecary jars of the age, too. The special value of maiolica-painting lies in the delicate brushwork revealing a brilliant skill. As the glazed background preserves every single touch for ever, so correction is impossible. The second (fixing) firing covers the surface with a never-fading shine and preserves the original radiance of the colours. The shapes of the jars underwent some changes too. The rounded shapes of the albarellos going back to Far-Eastern origin became more and more atten-