Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 57-59. (Budapest, 1971)
TANULMÁNYOK - Zoltán Imre: A budapesti egyetem és a magyar orvostudomány mesterei (angol nyelven)
THE BUDAPEST UNIVERSITY AND THE MASTERS OF HUNGARIAN MEDICINE* by IMRE ZOLTÁN W e are commemorating this year the 200 th anniversary of the foundation of our University or more correctly of its predecessor, the Medical Faculty of the University of Nagyszombat. The decree of Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, was actually issued on the 7 th November 1769, ruling on the supplementation of the faculties—philosophy, theology and law— of the University of Nagyszombat founded in 1635 by a Faculty of Medicine. 200 years are a relatively short period in the history of the European universities, thus our University belongs to the relatively younger ones among the European universities. Should we seek for an explanation of the relative lateness in the foundation of the first university medical school in our country, we may point to the turbulent historical past of our small country situated in the heart of Europe. On the basis of available data it may be assumed that several centuries preceding the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine in Nagyszombat we had universities in the 14 th and 15 th century with medical training going on (Buda, Pécs, Pozsony). However, as the consequence of Turkish oppression following the lost battle of Mohács these universities must have been destroyed. This is the explanation of the fact why Péter Pázmány when succeeding after many efforts in the foundation of the first Hungarian University of the new epoch, had to choose as the site of this university the small city of Nagyszombat in Northern Hungary, the capital of the country being in the hand of foreign conquerors. No medical training existed in Hungary up to the las third of the 18 th century. We had naturally physicians who were trained either abroad or learned from private doctors in Hungary and passed their examinations at foreign universities, their number however was very restricted. No doctor, not even a so-called "barber-surgeon" could be found in the villages or small cities. The barber surgeons were simple men, trained by the guild for shaving, blood letting, for becoming bathmasters, etc. It was however strictly forbidden for them to treat "internal" cases with the exception of the case when no doctor was available. As this latter exception was usually the general rule in Hungary in that epoch, * A part of the Ceremonial Address by the Rector Prof. dr. Imre Zoltán 9. November 1969.
