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)

XV. THE "HOLY GHOST" PHARMACY OF KÁROLY GÖMÖRY FROM 1813 Károly Gömöry "Apothecarian, captain in Pest, elected freeman of the town, scientist, lover of art and Maecenas" was born at Győr in 1779. He had serves his apprenticeship as assistant chemist in Pozsony and graduated as dispessing chemist at the university of Vienna in 1801. He purchased the third pharmacy of Pest, founded in 1786, the Holy Ghost Pharmacy in 1803. This educated gentleman with an exquisite taste of the Palatine era, who as an assessor of the Improvement Commission of Pest took part in the building of the National Museum, commissioned Mihály Po láçk (1773-1855), eminent architect of the age, to design a pharmacy house for him in the Király Street in 1812. The pharmacy was opened in 1813. The furniture - after being taken to pieces in 1951- arrived at its present place, the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum in 1965. One of the most beautiful pharmacy interiors, in all probability designed by Mihály Po láçk, was finished by the cabinet-maker Márton Rosznágel of Pest (1783-1857), while the decorative wood carving was made by the noted sculptor Lőrinc Dunaiszky (1784-1835) (Fig.8o.). The pharmacy furniture is U-shaped with rectangular outline. Its bottom is drawered, has cabinets at its set-backs, and shelves opened or fitted with glass above. The proportioning shows the hand of an architect. The cornice crowning the shelves and mounting the whole furniture, projects with abrupt proportioning. Under the cornice there is a guilded black bull's eye lath-work indicating the upper level of the fitting and synthetising the whole interior. In the subjacent troughs a gilt Empire foliation ending in flames and clusters of grapes, right and left springing from Hygieia heads or flamy vases is parading. Above the wall cupboards the shelved cabinets are screened with mirrordoors of four joints. The straight line of the furniture is broken by a projection at the axis of the rear wall, with a richly guilded French clock between the two columns of its cornice. According to the evidence of the inscriptions found on the drawers in the course of the restoration, the great Hungarian politicians and writers of the age - Petőfi, Kossuth, Eötvös and Wachott - must have been regular customers of the pharmacy. We wanted to emphasize the social meeting place character of the pharmacy by placing a set of furniture with fan-shaped backs around an Empire round table. The most impressive parts of the pharmacy are the guilded wooden reliefs carved by Lőrinc Dunaiszky. The subject of the six high reliefs was probably given by Gömöry himself, their elaboration, however does credit to the exquisite artistic ingenuity of Dunaiszky. Above the entrance door there is the scene "Curing", then from left to the right: "Hygieia", "Chemistry", "Pharmacy", "Asclepios" and "Medicine" follow. The subject of those decorating the two