Teoloogiatudengite meditsiiniteemalised oratsioonid Tartu Academia Gustaviana's
Medical Orations by Students of Theology at Academia Gustaviana Dorpatensis

Summary/Abstract: In the seventeenth century medical education at the University of Tartu was insufficient as compared to theology, law or rhetoric. There were also very few students studying in the Faculty of Medicine at Academia Gustaviana Dorpatensis. The main reason for the lack of interest was related to the problems of finding a job as a physician. Medical works written in Tartu between 1630 and 1656 originated mainly from the students of theology and future clergymen. The first Professor of Medicine at Academia Gustaviana was Johann Below (1601–68), who held that post from 1632 to 1642. He was born in Rostock. In 1628 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the University of Rostock. It has been presumed that Johann Below was interested in Paracelsus’ doctrine. As there were almost no students of medicine in Tartu during his professorship, Johann Below delivered lectures on anatomy and botany for students from other faculties. No medical disputations were written nor defended in Tartu during Below’s professorship, but there are two orations from that period dealing with medical themes – „Oratio de medicina” by Friedrich Hein from 1637 and Sequardus Wallander’s „Oratio de homine” from 1640. Both students were in fact studying theology at the University of Tartu and their orations could probably be considered as a symbiosis of medical and theological approach to the subject matter, i.e. medicine. There are mainly quotations from the Bible and ancient authors cited in both orations. It can be said that although delivering orations belonged to the field of the professor of rhetoric at Academia Gustaviana, both „Oratio de medicina” and „Oratio de homine” are also influenced by the activities of the professor of medicine, namely Johann Below at that time, although in different ways.

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