J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary 1972. Presented to the XXIII. International Congress of the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 6. (Budapest, 1972)
G. Buzinkayt Hungarians on Great Britain, 1620—1848. (Observations on English Education and Public Health in Hungarian Travelogues)
62 Medical History in Hungary 1972 (Comm. Hist. Artis Med. Suppl . 6.) More than £ 11 000 were offered. It was deposited in the Bank of England and for two centuries it was the "safest capital" of the college. Until the last third of the 18th century, beside Holland, Presbyterian students studied mainly at the universities of England and Scotland. 1 5 From the 16th century onwards not only students went to London and England. The first famous Hungarian traveller was András Dudich (1533—1589), the would-be Bishop of Pécs, who . .accompanied the cardinal (i.e. Pol Reginaldø who had been banished from Italy) leaving for England, to London on a long way round ... he greeted Princess Elisabeth, the future Queen in polished Latin language .. .". 1 6 His travel in 1554/55 was followed that of Máté Skaricza, Presbyterian priest and author of chants, in 1571, and István Kakas diplomat from Transylvania, the envoy of Zsigmond Báthory in 1593. By the time Márton Szepsi Csombor arrived at London (he must have stayed there for 10—14 days in May 1618) there had been already several Hungarian refugees settled down having escaped from the Turks who had occupied a large part of Hungary. 1 7 Szepsi Csombor stayed in England for a relatively short time, alone, and without knowing the language. In his "Europica Varietas" published in 1620 1 8 he writes less on England and its capital than on other stations of his travellings. His descriptions do not rely strictly on his own experiences, he made use of his literary and cultural historical knowledge. 1 9 It is mixed with some rumours, e.g. when —based on Pliny — he writes: "...It is the gagates stone from which those who know the art can make an eternally burning candle to be put out only by oil. It is a different thing that if one were to give the powder of this stone in wine to a young girl or young man, in that way one could get infallible evidence of their chastity, because if they are chaste , they will digest it, and if not, they will bring it up at once". 2 0 His descriptions, however, are mostly reliable, though —as we have mentioned it — unfortunately rather laconic. "England —he writes —has two academics. One in Cantabrigia, where that famous Vilhelmus Witakerus and Perkinsus were teach1 5 P. Sza ĥmárÿ, op. cit. pp. 158-159.; Magyary-Kossa, op. cit. p. 5. 1 6 Weszprémi, I.: Succincta medicorum Hungáriáé et Transilvaniae Biographia — Magyarország és Erdély orvosainak rövid életrajza. Vol. I. Budapest 1960. pp, 67—69. 1 7 Békés op. cit. p. 5, 12. 1 8 EVROPICA VARIETAS. avagy SZEPSI CZOMBOR MARTONNAK Lengyel, Mazur, Pruz, Dania, Frisia, Hollandia, Zelandia, Anglia, Gallia, Német és Cheh Országon ; viszontag : az Prussiai, Pomeraniai, Sueciai, Norvégiai, Frisiai, Zelandiai, Britanniai Tengeren valo budosasában látót, hallót külömb külömb fele dolgoknak röuid leirása. Mely minden Olvasónak nem czak gyönyörűségére, sok fele hasznara-is szolgalĥat. Cassan, Festus Ianos altal, 1620 (Evropica varietas, or a short description of the various things seen and heard by Marton Szepsi Czombor during his peregrination in Poland, Mazuria, Pruzia, Dania, Frisia, Holland, Zelandia, England, Gallia, Germany and Bohemia, and on the Prussian,Pomeranian, Suezian, Norwegian, Frisian, Zelandian and Britannian seas, which might give the Reader not only pleasure but also various benefits Cassa, published by Ianos Festus, 1620.). 1 9 Békés, op. cit. p. 6, 35. 2 0 Szepsi Csombor, op. cit. (1943) p. 103.; Békés, op. cit. p. 7.
