Abstract (may include machine translation)
This article discusses two treatises of Hans Saltzman, a medical doctor of Styrian origin,
who was employed as a town physician in Sibiu (Nagyszeben), a rich merchant town in
Transylvania. Saltzman earned his fame in Hungarian medical history as the one who
first proposed the detention of persons coming from infected areas at the time the plague
ravaged most of Hungary in 1510. We raise questions about what exact measures Saltzman
proposed in his plague treatise printed in Latin in 1510 and in his second similar work
published in German in 1521, and if it was likely or at least possible that a quarantine
had been implemented in Sibiu in 1510. To critically examine these issues, we place them
in the context of Saltzman’s life and studies, as well as the genre and tradition of plague
treatises in late medieval Europe, and the various preventive and curative methods that
they proposed. We also survey the institutional and personal measures that the municipal
government of Sibiu could take to handle contagious diseases. We conclude that even if
there is no direct proof that a quarantine was actually implemented in Sibiu, and the town
may not have been able to set up the necessary infrastructure that had no precedent in
landlocked Central Europe, one can observe a crucial move towards health becoming a
public value and the first tentative steps towards a conscious public health policy.
who was employed as a town physician in Sibiu (Nagyszeben), a rich merchant town in
Transylvania. Saltzman earned his fame in Hungarian medical history as the one who
first proposed the detention of persons coming from infected areas at the time the plague
ravaged most of Hungary in 1510. We raise questions about what exact measures Saltzman
proposed in his plague treatise printed in Latin in 1510 and in his second similar work
published in German in 1521, and if it was likely or at least possible that a quarantine
had been implemented in Sibiu in 1510. To critically examine these issues, we place them
in the context of Saltzman’s life and studies, as well as the genre and tradition of plague
treatises in late medieval Europe, and the various preventive and curative methods that
they proposed. We also survey the institutional and personal measures that the municipal
government of Sibiu could take to handle contagious diseases. We conclude that even if
there is no direct proof that a quarantine was actually implemented in Sibiu, and the town
may not have been able to set up the necessary infrastructure that had no precedent in
landlocked Central Europe, one can observe a crucial move towards health becoming a
public value and the first tentative steps towards a conscious public health policy.
Translated title of the contribution | Hans Saltzmann, the 1510 plague and the quarantine at Sibiu |
---|---|
Original language | Hungarian |
Pages (from-to) | 9-24 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Századok |
Volume | 156 |
Issue number | 1 |
State | Published - 2022 |