L’apothicairerie de l’hôpital de Lunéville. Qu’en savons-nous et qu’en reste-t-il ?

Abstract

The apothecary of Lunéville hospital. What do we know about it and what remains currently of it ? – The hospital was founded at the beginning of the XVIIIth century by Leopold, duke of Lorraine, and it received a great number of pharmaceutical vessels, undoubtedly by duke Stanislas in the middle of this century. All of them were selected as historical monuments in year 1966 and sold to the museum of the town in 1969. But all of them were destroyed during an important fire in the early days of year 2003. Is seems that no historical, artistical and scientifical study of them was never done. Although we know some inventories, these documents suffer of a lack of knowledges on drugs stored in these vessels and also of a lack of accurate photographs. The new museum is currently working on a removal of collections and some pharmaceutical vessels have already been bought ou deposited. Some exhibitions are also organized. On the other hand, museums and private collections contain some pots issued from the local factoreries at the same period of XVIIIth century. We have then some good ideas on the disappeared apothecary. However, only the discovery of unknown archivs would allow to render an exact knowledge of this important collection of pharmaceutical vessels of the century of Lumières in Lorraine.