PHARMATRANS. All Things Apothecary in Sixteenth–Twentieth-Century Transylvania. The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca/2022
PHARMATRANS. All Things Apothecary in Sixteenth–Twentieth-Century Transylvania. The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca/2022

Summary/Abstract: The second year of the PHARMATRANS research project implemented through the National Museum of Transylvanian History has mainly focused on the research for and the completion of the exhaustive catalogue of the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj, the main objective of the research team. First, we have photographed (with the continued pro bono cooperation of Ph.D. Alexandru Rădulescu) and processed (inventoried and included in the collection) most of the previously unknown artifacts identified when the collection was relocated from the Hintz House to the temporary storage rooms of the National Museum of Transylvanian History, plus several donations received in 2021– 2022 and recent archaeological finds. Thus, the collection has been enriched with 1,030 artifacts (manuscripts, books, pharmaceutical containers, ephemera, druggist containers, a lot of more than 600 pharmaceutical financial and accounting documents from the Engel pharmacy in Iași etc.) (Fig. 1). Due to the existence of several lots of very similar items, the objects were recorded under 111 inventory numbers (IF 2413–2524). Though the newly added items have already surpassed our initial estimation and have considerably enriched the collection, there are still more unprocessed artifacts (such as a large lot of accounting documents from the Hintz pharmacy and about 200 unidentified contemporary containers, of lesser historical value). Due to independent factors, such as the insufficient personnel and time, we have decided to exclude such goods from the scope of the present project. The catalogue will likely be completed by a subsequent volume, published by the museum after the completion of the project. We also envisage a new wave of public interest and donations after the reopening of the exhibition in the Hintz House in 2023, that will lead to the addition of new objects. The team has also decided that the lot of documents pertaining to the history of the collection (notes and correspondence of prof. Valeriu Bologa, the founder of the museum, documents pertaining to the previous museographers, blueprints of the museum), recently rediscovered and processed scientifically, will be subsequently included in the sub collection ‘The History of the National Museum of Transylvanian History’ by curator Ph.D. Ovidiu Muntean.

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