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Photos by Ella Hintz

March 21, 2022

On March 17th 2022 we took part in the opening of an exhibition entitled ”Inner images. Ella Hintz’s photographs” organized at the Ethnographic Museum by the Transylvanian Audiovisual Archive (Erdélyi Audiovizuális Archívum). Not only did we discover previously unknown photographs from inside the Hintz Pharmacy in Cluj, but also found about about the very exiting life of Ella Hintz (1885-1975), born Boros, wife of pharmacist György Hintz, one of the avant-garde women of Cluj and its first female driver. The exhibition is on until the end of the month and is accompanied by a printed catalogue (in Hungarian and soon also in Romanian translation). Congratulations to the organizers!

Uses and reuses

March 16, 2022

The close analysis of the apothecary containers of the collection from Cluj reveals numerous cases of reuse. Some of the jars have been repainted, with new inscriptions on top of old ones. Occasionally, the name of the new content was rendered on the opposite side, as the jars in question preserve two different signatures. In the most interesting cases, the history of the artifacts is fully documented: from the production place (manufacturer marks on the bottom), to the users (one or more pharmacies with personalized labels, handwritten notations of quantities and expiry dates made by pharmacists), collectors (the old inventory numbers of the Transylvanian Museum) and the current holder (the inventory numbers of the National Museum of Transylvanian History).

Materia medica samples

February 24, 2022

During the first part of this year we will collect samples from some of the substances preserved in our collection (the so-called materia medica) for chemical analyses. The simple substances will be sent to Institutul de Cercetare și Instrumentare Analitică in Cluj-Napoca, while the complex pharmaceutical preparations, especially the 8th-century ones, will be researched by the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry of the University in Pisa. Part of this department, a team led by Prof. Maria Perla Colombinih as specialized in such research through a national project entitled Colors and balms in Antiquity: from the chemical study to the knowledge of technologies in cosmetics, paintings and medicine (2007) that involved analytical studies of pharmaceutical preparations from historical collections (17^th-19^th centuries). The most important advantage of this team’s experience is its expertise in performing and interpreting the results of such chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses. The team led by Prof. Maria Perla Colombini has created a database of biomolecular markers through the analysis of reference materials, replicas of old formulations, and artificial ageing of both reference materials and replicas. Chromatography is a technique for the separation of a mixture into its components, while mass spectometry allows for the measurement of the relative molecular mass of chemical compounds and the chemical identity or structure of molecules.

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An 18th-century medicine chest

February 11, 2022

The advanced research of our project focuses on a spectacular 18th-century medicine chest preserved in the collection. The object is special through its age, state of preservation, association with an owner (countess Theresia Kemeny) and a pharmacist from Șimleu who provided the medicine, the preservation of the original content (glass containers, packages with materia medica and a previously unpublished manuscript), the combination of materials (wood, metal, glass, paper, rope, ink), and especially the preservation of most of the medicines that we shall analyze and compare to the era’s pharmaceutical preparations. We have started by researching the history of the artifact and its inscriptions and preparing for the collection of samples for specialized analyses at a laboratory in Pisa (Italy).

Visiting Dr. Eva Crișan

January 27, 2022

Dr. Eva Crișan reorganized the display of the history of pharmacy collection from Cluj in the Hintz House during the 1960s and 970s. Medical doctor by education, Dr. Crișan has taken over the older collection of the ”Institute for the History of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Medical Folklore” from Prof. Valeriu Bologa. The history of pharmacy museum opened in 1954 on the ground floor of the former Hintz pharmacy in Cluj, but in 1964 it closed for the opening of the corner passage that destroyed part of the building’s ground floor. During that year, the collection was taken over by the history museum. The basement was opened to the public in 1972, with a display reconstructing an apothecary laboratory, accessible from the previous exhibition rooms through an ingenious flight of stairs for small areas, designed by arch. Strauss. The result of Dr. Crișan’s efforts, the laboratory was inspired by the display of the most significant pharmaceutical museums from the German environment, making use of both original items and replicas for the reconstruction of the era’s context.

Dr. Eva Crișan was the first and most longevive museographer of the collection, active between 1964 and 2001. In 1984 she had the pharmacy museum included in the European Association of Museum of the History of the Medical Sciences, while in 1995 she organized in Cluj a prestigious international history of pharmacy congress. We are privileged to be able to visit her and document the history of the collection and of the field of research in general.

The Engel Pharmacy

January 11, 2022

We are starting a new year researching a significant lot of objects from the Engel pharmacy in Iași. Bought by the history museum in Cluj in 1982 and dated to the 19th and 20th centuries, they form a considerable lot (we usually do not have so many artifacts from a single pharmacy), that is atypical (the collection in Cluj mainly focuses on Transylvania and Banat), and special (through the inclusion of numerous financial documents). Our study reveals the history of the ”At the Crown” pharmacy and of the Engel family, but also opens towards research topics such as the history of drug trade, early marketing in Romania, economical and commercial history, even contraception and promotional gift making. In fact, it provides a very specialized perspective on the modernization of Romania.

Pharmacy and contemporary glass art

December 1, 2021

Another old pharmacy in Venice is currently one of the location of the Berengo Collection, hosting contemporary glass art exhibitions. The sign of the apothecary shop is preserved inside the oficina, a painted and gilded wooden sculpture of Christ the Savior (probably the name of the shop and the oldest historical artifact in the location). The original furniture has also been kept in the main room to the street, with decorative reliefs inscribed ”Mitridato” and ”Teriaca” (the names of two related recipes of a famous antidote and cure-all produced in Venice), the dispensing table and some of the drug containers. Though the combination of the old pharmacy and the glass art creations is impressive, the patrimony goods are in need of conservation and research.

”Ai do San Marchi” Pharmacy

November 30, 2021

The ”Two saints Mark” Pharmacy (the funny name probably started from the fact that the patron saint of Venice was painted on each side of the shop’s sign) is entirely preserved inside the Ca Rezzonico Museum. The pharmacy functioned in Campo San Stin between the 16th and the 19th century, but in 1908 the window of the last owner sold everything to a French collector. Still, as the latter was unable to take the goods out of Italy, he donated the entire furniture, containers and laboratory tools to the municipality of Venice. The three reconstructed rooms (the oficina, the small laboratory, and the back room) are complete, with all pieces of furniture, Venetian drug jars made of majolica, Murano glass retorts and containers, even the doors to the outside, with small glass panels, and the painted sign mentioned above. This is an impressive reconstruction and the most complete 18th-century pharmacy preserved from Venice. We thank Dr. Daniele D’Anza, of the Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento veneziano, for the special guided tour.

Pharmacy and perfume

November 29, 2021

The museum in the Palazzo Mocenigo, in Venice, dedicated to the history of the 18th century, includes two rooms dedicated to the history of perfume. The topic is of great interest to our project, as the same ingredients and technologies were often employed in the making of perfume and of medicines – especially the strong fragrances of animal origin, such as musk, ambergris, civet, and castoreum, but also some of the vegetal ones, like long pepper and anise. The entire museum is fascinating for the richness of its patrimony and for the reconstruction of a period when Venice was the hub of European trade in luxury goods (including spices and exotic goods).

Wunderkammer

November 27, 2021

The cabinets of curiosities, in which the emperors, kings and noblemen of Europe gathered, for study (and display) the most novel and strange natural specimens and the most interesting man-made artifacts, often included items also used in the preparation of drugs. Such Wunderkammern, fashionable especially between the 16th and the 18th centuries, houses bezoars, narwal horns (believed to be unicorn horns), sawfish rostrums and vegetal and mineral specimets from exotic territories thought for due to their healing properties. The GIANCARLO LIGABUE musej of natural history from Venice includes the reconstruction of such a cabinet of curiosities, as well as displays focusing on the artifacts of Venetian explorers who contributed to the research and systematization of the natural world. We were also impressed by the very modern and interactive curatorial principles at work in this museum.