Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 18-19. (Budapest, 2000)
Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts - Guide to the Exhibition
porzellana di Faenza, a fine kind of glazed and painted earthenware invented in this Northern Italian city. This particular jar is an albarello by its form. Albarelli arc high and slender earthenware, for standing close together on the shelves of a pharmacy, with contracted waist for easier grasping when the jar is taken down. Handles are sometimes added to it. Drug-pots of all shapes are often painted with the name of their contents, as a rule, on a label or ribbon nearly encompassing them. The minuscule inscription of this one reads: g.d.ocha. It was imported from Portogruaro, a small town in Veneto. An interesting 15th-century manuscript was found in a dcck of an incunabulum (No. 7). It is a summary of prescriptions, and medical advices to avoid vertigo and porrigo, and medical information about the physiological effects of fig and black currant. The copy of a pair of lenses (No.9), were made of leather in the 15th ccntury is an early product of modern European medical handicraft. The chastity belt (No. 16) from the 16-17th century was a rather rude instrument for guaranteeing the trustworthiness of one's spouse. II. The birth of modern medicine The critical attitude of modern scholarship strengthened by the Renaissance demanded the revaluation of the classics. From the times of Turkish victories over Byzantium and especially when Constantinople had fallen in 1453 hundreds of Greek scholars fled to Europe, mostly to Vcnicc, Rome and Florençç. This emigration greatly contributed to the renewal of classical scholarship, by the mere fact, that these men could read classical Greek authors. The invention of printing, on the other hand, made the newly translated works accessible to an ever increasing number of readers. Thirdly, as a result of the geographical discoveries new drugs (e.g. ipecacuana, guaiacum, chiniri) came to be used in medical practice. Renaissance art paid more attention to accurate dcpiction or portrayal of human anatomy. Speaking about arts we must mention the Italian Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who was one of the pioneers of modern anatomy too, though he studied the anatomy of human body for his artistic purposes. Scientific anatomy, on the other hand, reachcd its highest level in early modern times with the works of Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Vesalius regarded anatomy as a science indispensable for medicine. The religious wars contributed to the development of practical medicine, and above all to the renewal of surgery. The most prominent military surgeon was probably Ambroise Pare (1510-1590). Though Pare had obtained his practical knowledge on battlefields as a military surgeon, he perceived the importance of anatomical knowledge based on Vcsalius's descriptions, and thus opened a completely new era in the history of surgery. Another outstanding figure of these times 34
