Tartu as the Eastern Outpost of European Medicine in the First Half of the 17th Century
Tartu as the Eastern Outpost of European Medicine in the First Half of the 17th Century

Summary/Abstract: The history of medicine in Tartu begins with medieval monastic Medicine. There is data about an infirmary and an almshouse at the Holy Spirit Church, which were probably founded in the middle of the 13th century. The First pharmacy in Tartu was founded between 14222 and 1430 by a learned physician who arrived from Tallinn. Up to the beginning of the 17th century, the owners of the pharmacy were the only representatives of academic medicine in Tartu. Academic medical education in Tartu had its beginnings with the academic gymnasium founded in 1630 and the university founded in 1632. One of the three higher faculties at the University of Tartu at that time was the Faculty of Medicine. It was planned to have two professorships, although in reality only one professor of medicine was employed. The model of the University of Paris demanded that all “proper” universities must have a medical faculty. There were very few students studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Tartu in the 17th century. Only two names—David Cunitius and Olaus Oestenius—could be mentioned from among those who studied medicine at Academia Gustaviana and were later active as physicians. There were also students who studied in some other faculty in Tartu and later continued their studies in the field of medicine elsewhere in Europe. However, the Swedish University of Tartu can be considered an important centre of early modern medical thought in the Eastern Europe. The article tries to give some idea about the medical situation in Tartu before the founding of the University of Tartu and during its early period of existence. The task is to investigate whether the academic medicine of the first half of the 17th century has introduced any changes into the history of medicine of Tartu.

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