Exhibition concept: Marina Perica Krapljanov
Exhibition design: Lana Kovačić, Željko Kovačić
Poster design: Tajana Zver
Through the exhibition I, Jacobus Apothecarius – from the apothecary to industry we aim to present only a part of Zagreb’s pharmaceutical history from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age of mass production. The exhibition is not only about the significant profession of pharmacy but, in connection to its activities, it is also about the cultural and social development of the City. Starting with a reconstruction of a late medieval apothecary, the exhibition showcases the oldest known pharmaceutical products and the personal and professional impact of individual pharmacists to the development of the City.
The objects in this exhibition relating to the history of pharmacy and pharmacology have been chosen from the Zagreb City Museum’s Collection of everyday objects (which increases year on year due to donations and purchases) as well as many other institutions from across Zagreb, including the Department of the Medical Science History of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Museum for Arts and Crafts, the Croatian History Museum, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, the Archaeological Museum …
The need to comprehensively preserve and present this heritage in situ has led to the proposed project relating to a specialist museum on the history of medicine and pharmacies.
Apothecaries (in addition to surgeons, medics and barbers) were from the Middle Ages to 1872 considered craftsmen and their names were listed in the early records of the free and royal Gradec. These records show that they were given various privileges and charters, and consequently it has been possible to track names, events and descriptions of their destinies.
The first academic qualifications attained by Zagreb’s pharmacists were at universities in Prague, Graz and Vienna, but the inauguration of the pharmacy at the University of Zagreb in 1882 and the parallel expansion of the City saw a growth in the number of newly established pharmacies.
This exhibition aims to present only a few of the most significant pharmacies, as in 1924 there were already twenty-seven of them in the wider city centre.
The apothecary Jacobus Apothecarius, the namesake of the exhibition, was first mentioned in 1355 and is therefore Zagreb’s first pharmacist recorded in historic records.
Marina Perica Krapljanov
Pictures from the exhibition
photo Miljenko Gregl. ZCM
