["This wide sea of proprietary medicines...": the status of pharmacy and the image in the apothecary in Renaissance medical prefaces (1528-1628)].
Renaissance authors of medical treatises do not stay silent on the issue of the pre-eminence of medicine over surgery and pharmacy and on questions of hierarchy between the three "medici naturae ministri". This article examines how in their prefaces, a number of authors of medical treatises published between 1528 and 1628, come to the defence of the eminence of pharmacy, by emphasizing what distinguishes the apothecary from the other two professions. The prefaces of these treatises provide their authors with an arena where in rhetorical as well as scientific language, they can argue in favour of and give praise to the art of pharmacy and come to the defence of its practitioners. In this way, during the period, polemics about the status of pharmacy, combining elogium with criticism, participate in the construction of the professional identity of the pharmacist.
Koźluk
Magdalena
M
Département de lettres classiques, Université de Lódź, Pologne.
D005602:France; D000077406:History of Pharmacy; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history*