The diplomas of Croatian pharmacists which are stored in the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy, which is part of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) represent the document of finalised education of Croatian pharmacists, either completed internships (14 internship diplomas), university education (28 Master’s degrees) or postgraduate studies (2 Doctoral degrees: Eugen Spiller and Hrvoje Tartalja). Along with the above mentioned, there are also 14 charters connected with memberships in professional associations and acknowledgements for the prominent members of the pharmaceutical profession. The holders of the diplomas and charters are 35 pharmacists from all parts of Croatia – Bakar, Bjelovar, Buje, Donja Stubica, Fužine, Gospić, Našice, Osijek, Petrinja, Požega, Samobor, Sisak, Valpovo, Varaždin, Velika Gorica, Vinica and Zagreb, and the largest number of documents were awarded to Hrvoje Tartalja, Milan Tkalčić and Arpad Pečić.
The pharmacists whose diplomas have been preserved include the prominent members of the Pharmacist Association and its presidents (Pečić, Vouk, Ključec), the member and the treasurer of the first pharmaceutical association called Aesculap (Fibić), the president and a member of the Croatian Pharmaceutical Society (Ilakovac, Tkalčić), the members of the Pharmacy Chamber (Pecinovsky, Primorac), the investors in architecture (Gayer, Pečić, Feller), the representatives of the esteemed pharmaceutical dynasties (Panac, Seitz, Csillagh, Krauterblüth – Krajanski, Vouk, Deszathy), the predecessors of the pharmaceutical industry (Feller), the founders of wholesale pharmacies (Vouk, Košćec), as well as the pioneers in attempts to institutionalise the history of pharmacy and the initiators of pharmaceutical museology (Krajanski, Tartalja).
The collage of the preserved diplomas of the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy has had such an interesting life, interwoven with well-known and less well-known names of pharmacists, data on their places and dates of birth, nationality and the end of their education, the names of the members of committees and promoters, thus leaving in its graphic processing an impressive mark of the aesthetics of the period and the stylistic expression in which they were produced. The preserved diploma collection is also evidence to the development of pharmaceutical education, which in the different types of documents and their design, the title forms, and sometimes the signature itself, reveal the changes in the pharmaceutical education system in different periods of time. The speciality in pharmacists’ education in relation to the other akin professions was the internship and a final exam crowned with the internship diploma. After the four-year pharmacy study program was introduced, these were no longed issued, so the preserved collection of these documents stands out as a rarity and proof of educational reforms.
This exhibition focuses on 55 diplomas and charters of Croatian pharmacists from the Collection of the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy. They include: 14 internship diplomas, 28 Masters degree diplomas, 2 diplomas for the title Doctor of Science and 11 charters.
Alongside with quality digital reproductions of 45 items, the exhibition showcases the restored originals and accompanying restoration posters in order to acquaint the visitors with the complex issue of how to approach the protection of sensitive written documents on paper and parchment via the vivid images of conservation-restoration procedures undertaken with the aim of protecting their material and informative integrity.
Project holders: Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy HAZU
Marko Pećina, Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Museum Director; Prof. DSc Stella Fatović-Ferenčić, MD, Museum Deputy Director; Silvija Brkić Midžić, senior curator, Museum Manager
Co-organizers of the exhibition: Gliptotheque HAZU, Vesna Mažuran Subotić, Manager
Authors of the exhibition and catalogue: Stella Fatović-Ferenčić i Silvija Brkić Midžić
Digitalisation of original diplomas: Goran Vržina
Exibition Partner: Croatian State Archive, Central Laboratory for the Conservation and Restoration of Archives
Publishers of the catalogue: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Croatian Pharmaceutical Society
Editorial Board: Marko Pećina, Fellow of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts; Doc. DSc Maja Jakševac-Mikša; Prof. DSc Stella Fatović-Ferenčić; Silvija Brkić Midžić
Reviewers: Prof. DSc Željan Maleš, MSc Dubravka Osrečki Jakelić
Graphic design: Studio Rašić, Ante Rašić
Preparation for print: Studio Rašić, Ankica Penava-Pejčinović
Conservation and restoration works on the exhibited diplomas:
MK Bookbinding and Cardboard Packaging, Mario Kauzlarić
Croatian State Archive, Central Laboratory for the Conservation and Restoration; Head of Laboratory: Andreja Dragojević
Author of the posters Konzerviranje i restauriranje pergamena Hrvatskog muzeja medicine i farmacije: Igor Kozjak
Exhibition design: Ante Rašić, Studio Rašić
Technical display: Stanislav Novak, Conservum; technical stuff of the Gliptotheque HAZU
The exhibition has been realised thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Foundation and the Croatian Pharmaceutical Society.
