J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)
ESSAYS-LECTURES - G. Buzinkay: Sanitary References in Kelemen Mikes's Letters from Turkey (in English)
sanitary references in kelemen mikes's letters from turkey by GÉZA BUZINKAY *T*he peace-treaty of Sza már with the Austria of the Habsburgs in 1711 put an end to the eight years of the war of independence led by Ferenc Rákóczi II, and at the same time it meant the conclusion of a series of nearly two centuries of fights for liberty against the Turks and the Habsburgs. Rákóczi, leader of the war of independence, one of the greatest, most romantic, and multi-levelled heroes of Hungarian history, fled first to Poland, then to the France of the Sun King, Louis XIV, with his faithful men. Having received no more of empty promises even, he went on with his court hiding in Turkey, even then not losing the hope that he would be able to continue his fight. The reigning prince, who fled into a pietist religiousness, met his end in Rodostó (today Tekirdag) in 1735, For describing life in exile, much can be thanked to Kelemen Mikes , Rákóczi's faithful page, scribe, then chancellor. What is more, nearly all aspects of his writings that do not refer to Rákóczi tend to be neglected. From the scribe who passionately loved his master, the reflected image of the prince has remained the best-known ... KELEMEN MIKES, THE MEMOIRIST He was born in 1690, of an old Hungarian aristocratic family. His place of birth was Zágon*, in that part of Transylvania, which gave Sándor Körösi Csorna, founder of Tibetian philology, who among several great men of Hungarian history and culture history was significant in a world scale too. Kelemen Mikes came of a noble family holding high offices—his cousin, Mihály Mikes was given countship in 1698 [1]. Anti-Habsburg struggle was a tradition in his family: his father who had taken part in T ĥökölÿs uprising was executed by order of the commander of the emperor's armies in Transylvania in the year of his son's birth. At the age of seventeen, in 1707, he became Rákóczi's page, and from that time on his life was closely linked to his prince whom he followed even in exile. Far from his country, without family and wife he died in Rodostó in 1761 as one of the last members of the Rákócziexile. With his collection of fictitious letters, Letters from Turkey, he is one *Today Zagon, Roumania 93
