Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 54. (Budapest, 1970)

TANULMÁNYOK - Kubinyi András: The Social and Economic Standing of Persons Concerned with Health Treatment in Buda at the Turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries (angol nyelvű közlemény)

[48], The royal surgeon, whom the evidence quoted shows to have earned well in this capacity, became assimilated to the citizenship of Buda and himself, too, took up trading. (At the same time, as a nobleman, he procured an estate as well.) On the whole one cannot deny the attraction of the civilian, merchant way of life. The example of master Figgini already leads us to the second question, for—as it is well-known—in the Middle Ages surgical activities in most cases were performed not by doctors of medicine having a university degree, but by people lacking that [49]. What is more, in addition to the surgeons proper, surgical tasks were administered also by barbers and bath managers, who often formed a common guild with the "chirurgeons", or were submitted to similar regulations [50]. Of course we have no evidence that Figgini, the royal surgeon, had not a doctor's degree in medicine at the same time. But it cannot be merely accidental that no cource refers to him as doctor. Yet probably he did go to university, but only to the arts faculty, where he could receive a master's degree, which occurs in the sources. But he undoubtedly, belonged to a category much above the barbers. There is no data left of any other surgeon in Buda save him in the period discussed, so here we need not consider them to have had great importance [51], It is obvious then that in case of illness the townspeople of Buda generally were not treated by physicians, not even by qualified surgeons. If the disease required surgical interference, people had to fall back on barbers and bath managers, while in the rest of the cases they turned to the apothecarians. But it must be born in mind that this negative picture was not characteristic of the Hungarian capital alone. In this respect it might be well worth casting a glance at the capital of the neighbouring Austria. In Vienna there lived court physicians in the household of the Habsburg sovereigns just as well as at the Hungarian kings. But in the Austrian capital even the professors of the medical faculty could maintain a considerable practice. In spite of that even the citizens of Vienna did not often see the doctors. In 1405 the medical faculty felt compelled to pass a decision that no" empiricus" or anybody else was entitled to practice in Vienna without their assent, except those holding a doctor's degree issued by any university. The faculty decision shows the objects of the anxiety: pharmacists, nuns active in curing and selling medicaments, and finally quacks known as "empiricus", that is people who learned medication in practice, not at universities [52]. It is no wonder that the population of Vienna turned to apothecarians, sometimes to nuns, monks, who in most cases were content with mere alms, or to quacks not requiring high fees, instead of seeing the expensive professors [53]. The situation could not be much different at Buda and its vicinity. At the end of the Middle Ages the sanitary needs of the Hungarian capital, too, were administered by barbers, bath managers, apothecarians, besides, or instead of the physicians and surgeons, therefore it is not without interest to have a look at their social and economic position. With them curing, of course, could be only a secondary occupation, even if a profitable one. Their role in therapeutics has been adequately dealt with in medical history, here we cannot