This project (2018-1-ES01-KA203-050606) has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Ancient pharmacy - National Museum of Sanitary Art, Santo Spirito Hospital


Place where the object is located
National Museum of Sanitary Art, Rome.
Story of the object
The construction of the Ospedale Santo Spirito dates back to 1198. It was built by Pope Innocent III. Destroyed by fire in 1471, it was then rebuilt by Pope Sixtus IV. In addition to the center of care and assistance was an important place of teaching of Medicine for the presence of a library created by Lancisi (Lancisian Library) and a well-equipped anatomical theater among the most famous in Europe created by Flaiani.
Inside the structure there is an ancient Spezieria of the seventeenth century known as a center for production and sorting of the powder obtained from the bark of China. The use of the preparation, very popular at the time, was recommended for the treatment of fever and malaria very widespread in the Roman countryside.
In the Museum there is the "Temple of China", which contained the millstones and the chest of the bark.
The ancient pharmacy has a terracotta floor and a coffered ceiling. A large walnut bench is placed in front of the entrance door and on it rests a wooden weight scale. The shelves that cover the walls expose beautiful pharmacy jars that once contained medicines from the spice shops which then disappeared from the Santo Spirito, San Giacomo in Augusta and Santa Maria della Consolazione in Rome. The effectiveness of the remedies was linked to the harmony of the ingredients and the precision of the dosage of the substances used. Often, instead of dosing the raw materials, spoons were used as a unit of measurement.
In the pharmacy there was a rich instrumentation for the preparation and preservation of simple substances: mortars for crushing and powdering herbs, spatulas for dosing, mixing and administering remedies, glass or metal funnels for pouring liquids, glass and ceramic containers for storing medicines and scales for weighing.
The apothecary towered behind the bench and the doctor and notables gathered around him.
Often the doctor received his patients in the pharmacy, a practice that was widespread throughout the country which was preserved in different regions until our times.
The doctor is represented in ancient pictorial representations in the pharmacy in the act of visiting, prescribing prescriptions or examining urine.
Since the Constitutiones of Frederick II in the thirteenth century, the figure of the apothecary became autonomous from that of the doctor.
Important was the publication of the pharmacopoeia, real treatises on pharmacology and valuable collection of recipes for the treatment of the most common diseases of the time and rules of conduct for the the prevention of diseases
Unit of the Educational Material connected (4 - 2)
Label
Reconstruction: Year 1474-1477, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV.