Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 18-19. (Budapest, 2000)

The Golden Eagle Pharmacy Museum in Buda Castle

depicting Saint George the dragon slayer, and finally an 18th ccntury unglazed vessel with the inscription 'Theriaca

'. This nostrum, kept at the placc of honour in every pharmacy, was held to be the antidote of all poisons, and actually served as sedative as late as in the 18th century, it was first composed by Añđromaçĥųs, physician to Emperor Nero, of seventy ingredients of which the most important was opium. The famous 17th ccntury weight holder from Nürnberg, the Renaissance mortar from the Netherlands dated 1648, a Hungarian mortar from the 17th century and an Austrian bronze of 1777 add to the variety of the exhibition. The small picture by a German master depicting 'Christ as an Apothecary

' painted in the second half of the 18th ccntury after A. Ehcmann's ç çhing (14x18,5 cm) is placcđ here, too. There can be seen a Plantini edition of the pharmacopoeia by Valerius Cordųs (Antwerp, 1580). A rare piccc is the licence of 1689 for selling medicina herbs in Venice and its surroundings, granted to a so-callcd 'aromatarius'. The show-case at the entrance contains early relics like the Gothic mortars of various shapes from the 14-15th centuries, a beam and scalcs from the Árpád age (11—13th c.), a 17th ccntury copy of a Renaissance balance, a 15th ccntury manuscript containing medical and veterinary prescriptions as well as the most widely used antidotarium of the Middle Ages, the Lumen apotchecarium of Quiricus de Augustus de Toronta, in a Vcnice edition from 1517. From among the Habán vessels it is worth to point out the keg containing ' Vinum Cerasorum

' (cherry-stalk wine) from the middle of the 17th ccntury, and the early angular ginger holders; one with a floral pattern from 1661 and a unique blue one of the effect of a Delft ccramic from the second half of the 17th ccntury. János Dávid Ruland's, 'pharmacopoeia' and János Torkos Justus's, 'taxa' as well as Pál Danyi's manuscript 'Medical advice

' of 1757 count among the valuable documents. The third case presents 18th-century pharmacy vessels from Hungarian manufactures (Holies, Tata, Buda, Somfa and others in Upper Hungary and in Transylvania). The most famous ones are the tetrangular bottle decoratcd with the coat of arms of Bishop István Telekessy made for the pharmacy of the Jesuits at Eger, and the vessel from Holies with the double-headed black eagle decorating the space around the label (cartouche), made for the former Jesuit later 'Black Eagle

' pharmacy at Székesfehérvár. The period is represented by glass and wooden jars from Transylvanian pharmacies as well as by the earliest series of bottles with alchcmist signs in their cartouchc made for the apothecary's shop to the 'Saracen

' in Pécs, at the end of the 17th ccntury. Beside the 18th-century prescription and signatures, the first pharmacopoeia for Hungary, the 'Pharmacopoeia Austriaco Provinciális

' (Pozsony, 1779), found its placc here. The shop is conncctcd to the 'alchemist's laboratory' by a 'servicc-window' which was built in the second half of the 18th century. (Today the floor level is elevated by 30 cms.) The laboratory rooms has a mystic atmosphere with its instruments from the 17—18th ccnturics and the reconstructed distiling equipment; the basic laboratory proccss can be seen there distillation itself, as it was performed with flask, cap and retort. The Renaissance round stove was reconstructed after a woodcut in Brunschwcig's Da niiwe distiller Bouch (1528). The theme is well illustrated by David Rykaert Ill's (1612-1661) painting: 85