Varga Benedek szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 149-157. (Budapest, 1996)

TANULMÁNYOK / ARTICLES - Jobst Ágnes: Ex libris medicinae. Az orvosi hivatás szimbolikája orvosi könyvjegyeken

SUMMARY One of the sources which has regained limited interest in Hungary so far, but could be very useful to understand the change in attitudes towards medical profession is book plate engraving. This article is a strive for interpreting the views of both artists and medical collectors as they appear in forms of book plate illustrations. The investigated material belongs largely to the collection of the Semmelweis Medical Historical Museum and Library, and the National Széchényi Library with some additional pieces from other Hungarian libraries. The origin of using book plate engravings to indicate the owner is connected with the invention of printing. Previously, the proprietors of codices usually had had their coat of arms painted on the front pages of their books. Since printing resulted serious price reduction books became available for lower classes of society as well, and collecting books were not reserved for rich noblemen, members of secular or clerical aristocracy any more. Early book plates which still applied heraldic symbols were soon replaced by woodcuts that presented civil professions, and civic values and customs. As a proof that scholars were also keen on testifing the items of their considerably rich libraries, the author refers to the 13 known book plates of physicians from 16th-century Germany. Regarding symbolic terms, we can come accross many of the usual iconographical depictions of scientia naturalis or medica: the owl of Pallas Athene, a book, the snake of Asclepios, or the head, and sometimes the statue of Hygieia etc. From the 17th century some elements of the dans macabre became widely used on medical book plates as well. The author mentions the engravings of Daniel Chodowiecki and others which illustrate the familiar dans macabre motif: the struggle between Death and the Physician for the survival of the patient. Beside these well known iconographical themes the artists often applied medical instruments, and parts of human body on their woodcuts or engravings to remind of the collector's profession. Although first Hungarian book plate woodcuts appeared as early as the 16th century, those belong to physicians are only from the late 18th century. The oldest Hungarian ex libris is a copperplate made for János József Seth, head-physician of Komárom County from the late 18th century. There are two other early examples: the copperplate of István Segesvári, deputy physician of Debrecen from 1803, and the litographic ex libris of the famous homeopath physician Pál Almási Balogh from 1840. Modern Hungarian book plate engravings were speeded up from the turn-of-the-century, giving way for many modern presentations.