CES History of Medicine in Slovakia

The aim of the compulsory elective subject is to give and get an overview of the history of medicine in the territory of nowadays Slovak Republic from the oldest times to the present day. The aim is to show the specifics of the development in this region and put them into a wider context of European history of medicine. As in the Middle Ages, in the New Age and in the youngest periods, the lectured information will oscillate around the skeleton: institutions – personalities – knowledg . In this way the students will be able to get an overview of medieval, modern and modern physicians that worked in this region, of the origins and development of institutionalized medical and social care as well as medical science on the territory of Slovakia. Goal of the subject is also to show the students that medicine does not stand as science alone so they will gain a general background in the history of thinking and society. Lectures are strictly interdisciplinary and will be conducted interactively.

1. Introduction, basic terminology, sources, chronology and periodization

2. Research possibilities of the prehistory of medical sciences

3. Antiquity, ancient times in Slovakia, Romans and „barbarians“, transformation of the Roman world

4. The beginning of the Middle Ages, general description and phenomena, intellectual and spiritual climate and its impact on sciences and medical theory

5. Medieval hospital, practice and practitioners, places of education, universities, symptomatic diseases of the era

6. Personalities of Humanism and Renaissance, specifics of Early Modern Period and new trends in sciences

7. The expansion of medical knowledge, experiments and groundbreaking discoveries, institutional evolution in Slovakia (Kingdom of Hungary)

8. Slovak physicians, students and medicine in 19. century

9. Faculty of Medicine of the Comenius University in Bratislava in the context of social and political changes of the first half of the 20. century

10. Summarization – alternative substitute lesson

11. Exam

90% attendance, written test

PORTER, Roy (ed.). The Cambridge History of Medicine. Oxford 1962.

PRIORESCHI, Plinio. A History of Medicine, vol. IV: Byzantine and Islamic Medicine. Omaha 2001.

PRIORESCHI, Plinio. A History of Medicine, vol. V: Medieval Medicine. Omaha 2003.

SIRAISI, Nancy G. Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice.  Chicago 2009.

FALISOVÁ, Anna: Lekári na Slovensku do roku 2000. Bratislava 2010. 

JUNAS, Ján. Prehľad dejín lekárstva. Bratislava 1975.

JUNAS, Ján – BOKESOVÁ-UHEROVÁ, M.: Dejiny medicíny a zdravotníctva. Martin 1985.

MAJOROSSY, Judit – SZENDE, Katalin: Hospitals in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary. In SCHEUTZ, Martin (ed.). Europäisches Spitalwesen : institutionelle Fürsorge in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Wien - München 2008, p. 409–454.

BENIAK, Milan - TICHÝ, Miloš: Dejiny Lekárskej fakulty Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave. 1. časť. Bratislava 1992.

PARK, Katharine: Medicine and Society in Medieval Europe, 500–1500. In: Medicine in Society: Historical Essays. Cambridge 1992, p. 59–90.

GRMEK, Mirko D. (ed.): Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Translated by Antony Shugaar. Cambridge 1998.