Page 19 - Pharmacy History 32 July 2007

Traveller’s tales
Croatian pharmacy
by Geoff Miller
O ccasionally the mail brings a surprise for the editorial
staff, especially when it’s a post card from an exotic holiday
destination far away, or just dripping with history.
Recently, pharmacist brothers Alex and Brian Banovich of Fremantle Western Australia, accompanied by Alex’s daughter Michelle, who is also a pharmacist, were on a trip to Croatia and found this intriguing old Franciscan pharmacy, founded in 1317 in the ancient city of Dubrovnik.
It is hard to believe that this pharmacy predates the earliest Melbourne pharmacy described in an earlier article by some 500 years. When one’s vision of pharmacy beyond Australia only extends to
the images of those in England or America, its an interesting exercise to stop and think about other countries that have a far greater history of all aspects of this profession of ours. Take for example Croatian pharmacy which has a history going back
to the 13th century. As medicine developed, it became necessary to turn the preparation of drugs and
medicines into a separate profession. Pharmacy thus developed as an independent science in the 12th and 13th centuries, especially under the influence of the Salerno School.
On the other hand, it was not so easy to sever the ties that had been binding medicine and pharmacy for thousands of years.
There is a medieval document of extraordinary importance for the development of pharmacy in Croatia and the world. This is the edict issued by Emperor Frederick II, known
for his education and patronage of science, in which the separation of these two sciences and practices was made legal for the first time in history.
Emperor Frederick II 1194-1250
Physicians were forbidden to prepare or sell drugs and enter into business with pharmacists. Pharmacies in
the modern sense of the word, as independent health institutions recognised and controlled by law, first appeared in the south of Italy in the mid 13th century, soon to be followed by pharmacies in the Croatian territory when Ancona and Trogir reestablished their ‘’traditional peace and friendship’, at the time when Croats were at war with the Tartars and Zagreb became a free royal city.
European pharmacy developed under the influence of Arabian pharmacy, starting in Italy and southern France, the countries that were most closely associated with the Arab cultural sphere.
The oldest Croatian public and independent pharmacies mentioned in the records were in Trogir in
1271, Dubrovnik and Split in 1282, Zadar in 1289, Kotor and Rab in 1326, Pula in 1353, Zagreb in 1355, and Sibenik in 1420. Thus, the first unquestionable data on pharmacies, pharmacists and pharmaceutical legislation originate from the eastern Adriatic towns which, after the fall
of the West Roman Empire, during the great influx of Slavic and other peoples, succeeded in preserving
the unbroken continuity of their municipal organisation, such as Zadar and Trogir, or in the cities reborn on the ruins of their predecessors: Split out of Salona, Dubrovnik out of Epidaurum.
Those of you who have traveled in this part of the world will no doubt recognise the names of these great cities that are still flourishing today.
volume 3 ■ no 32 ■ JULY 2007
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 19