The Circulation of Medical Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Hungary

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the circulation patterns of medical knowledge within the geographic space of the eighteenth-century Kingdom of Hungary. The social fabric of the kingdom was thoroughly intertwined with the religious, ethnic, linguistic, estate constitutional, and professional cultures of knowledge which, accordingly, showed a great abundance of diversity. These multi-level regional differences are disclosed while exploring the extent, rapidity, and quality of contemporary medical knowledge circulation, which were primarily influenced by the operation of Hungary’s educational centers under the auspices of the different churches. Undoubtedly, physicians tended to follow the Habsburg Monarchy’s and Europe’s circulation of theoretical, practical, methodological concepts, which varied though according to the means and orientations of different educational centers aided by the “peregrinatio academica.” In the first half of the eighteenth century, Halle served as a primary source of knowledge elements, whereas the import of Dutch and Swiss university cultures of knowledge had been on the rise from the second half of the century onward. Moreover, Gerard van Swieten’s reforms overriding denominational boundaries, transformed the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna into an institute of prominence in the second half of the eighteenth century. The reforms had consequences upon the making and evolution of Hungary’s independent medical discourse, self-reflection, and methodology. The foundation of the Medical Faculty of the University of Trnava (Nagyszombat, Tyrnau) in 1770, and its subsequent resettlement in Buda and Pest, brought about a transformation in the long run.