Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

who was the leader of the wax-figure workshop in the Pitti Palace in Florence. The most significant Italian wax-sculptors of the period worked under his direction. The above mentioned wax-figure was probably made by Ferrini or Clemente Susin (Fig. 50.). The exposed abdominal and chest cavity of the lying nude figure reveals the inward organs, nerves and arteries. The naturalistic illustration served the purpose of teaching but at the same time manifests a great sculptural skill and a modelling of high artistic interest. The other pieces (Fig. 51.) representing various parts of the body were produced by all probability in the same workshop. They are exhibited in and around the show-case referring to the University of Nagyszombat as indispensable ancillary objects used for teaching and training at the universities. The Council of Buda in 1279 forbid the monk - physicians to perform any "bloody operations". This prohibition was acknowledged by the secular physicians, too, which fact also contributed to the rise of a category specially concerned with surgical activities, i.e. the appearance of barber-surgeons, or as they were called "chirurgeons" of lower medical training, lacking a university degree. In order to protect their common interests they formed guilds. Having served the years of apprenticeship, it was necessary for the chirurgeons to pass an examination conducted by the county physician. On the basis of a succesful examination they were granted a certificate. Some documents of this kind dating from the 18th century from Léva (today Levice, Czechoslovakia), Komárom (today Komarno, Czechoslovakia), Veszprém and Buda. These certificates are valuable documents from the view-point of local history, since the view of the town which issued it was often represented in the heading according to contemporary custom. This, however, does not refer to the certificates issued at Léva and in Veszprém which are decorated with ornaments taken from Hungarian folk art.