The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy - A Journey through History

Alejandra  Gómez Martín

Titles

Abstract

The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy is a university museum with more than sixty-five years of history located in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid. It forms part of the university’s extensive historic-artistic and scientific technical heritage, and is one of the most important museums in terms of age, history and quality of collections housed. Although it was primarily created for teaching purposes, it now also offers guided tours to a diverse public searching for cultural enrichment. It receives more than four thousand visitors a year, who learn about the history of the pharmaceutical profession, the preparation of medicines, and the decorative arts, an area that has always gone hand in hand with the pharmaceutical trade. In spite of the limitations imposed by a low budget and a small staff, it is an active museum which continues to enlarge, conserve and restore its collection, while becoming ever more widely known through an ongoing participation in temporary exhibitions.

The museum is approximately seven hundred square meters in size and is housed on two floors, as well as having an additional space in two other buildings that make up the present faculty. The five original pharmacies, two dating back to the 18th century and three from the 19th century, are without a doubt the most striking exhibits, and are also supplemented by recreations of an Arabic pharmacy, an iatrochemistry laboratory, and a replica of a 17th century hospital pharmacy. The rest of the collection is made up of exhibits representing very different techniques and uses: paintings, sculptures and numerous display cabinets with 18th century medical material, pharmaceutical advertising, amulets, scientific instruments, mortars, apothecarial tools for preparing pharmaceutical compounds, ceramic and porcelain pharmaceutical jars, flasks and other glass utensils, wooden boxes, medicines, medicine chests and travel pharmacies, and much more, all totalling more than nine thousand objects that illustrate how medicines have been prepared, stored and dispensed throughout history.

The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy is a university museum with more than sixty-five years of history located in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid. It forms part of the university’s extensive historic-artistic and scientific technical heritage, and is one of the most important museums in terms of age, history and quality of collections housed. Although it was primarily created for teaching purposes, it now also offers guided tours to a diverse public searching for cultural enrichment. It receives more than four thousand visitors a year, who learn about the history of the pharmaceutical profession, the preparation of medicines, and the decorative arts, an area that has always gone hand in hand with the pharmaceutical trade. In spite of the limitations imposed by a low budget and a small staff, it is an active museum which continues to enlarge, conserve and restore its collection, while becoming ever more widely known through an ongoing participation in temporary exhibitions.

The museum is approximately seven hundred square meters in size and is housed on two floors, as well as having an additional space in two other buildings that make up the present faculty. The five original pharmacies, two dating back to the 18th century and three from the 19th century, are without a doubt the most striking exhibits, and are also supplemented by recreations of an Arabic pharmacy, an iatrochemistry laboratory, and a replica of a 17th century hospital pharmacy. The rest of the collection is made up of exhibits representing very different techniques and uses: paintings, sculptures and numerous display cabinets with 18th century medical material, pharmaceutical advertising, amulets, scientific instruments, mortars, apothecarial tools for preparing pharmaceutical compounds, ceramic and porcelain pharmaceutical jars, flasks and other glass utensils, wooden boxes, medicines, medicine chests and travel pharmacies, and much more, all totalling more than nine thousand objects that illustrate how medicines have been prepared, stored and dispensed throughout history.

Keywords

Museum, pharmacy, history, decorative arts, heritage, university

References

Basante Pol R.Mª, González Navarro G. (coords.), El Museo de la Farmacia Hispana, Consejo Social de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 1993.

Castillo Rodríguez C. del, El Museo de la Farmacia Hispana como herramienta docente en el ámbito del espacio europeo de educación superior [in:] Congreso Internacional Museos universitarios. Tradición y futuro, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 2015.

Esteva De Sagrera J., La farmacia española [in:] Cowen D.L., Helfand W.H., Historia de la Farmacia,Doyma Ed. Barcelona 1992.

García De Marina Bayo A., Castillo García B. del, Puerto Sarmiento J., Colección histórica de instrumentos científicos del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana de la Facultad de Farmacia, Fundación Hefame, Alicante 2007.

González Bueno A., Rodríquez Nozal R. (coords.), El medicamento de fabricación industrial
en la España contemporánea,CERSA, Madrid 2008.

González Bueno A., Museos de ciencia en la universidades: algunas reflexiones y una descripción, „Revista de Museología”, Madrid 2003, No. 27–28, p. 67–71.

Fernández Fernández M.V., La Botica del Hospital San Juan Bautista de Astorga. [Tesis doctoral, dirigida por Javier Puerto Sarmiento],Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 1997.

Folch Jou G., Farmacia hispano-árabe. Museo de la Farmacia Hispana. Madrid, “Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historia de la Farmacia”, Madrid 1967, No. 18 (69), p. 37–38.

Folch Jou G., Laboratorio yatroquímico del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana, “Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historia de la Farmacia”, Madrid 1967, No. 18 (70), p. 88–89.

Folch Jou G., Basante Pol R., Uñoz Sánchez-Villacañas M.C., La farmacia madrileña de la Plaza de Santo Domingo, “Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historia de la Farmacia”, Madrid 1983, No. 34 (136), p. 111–137.

Mazuecos Jiménez E., Patrimonio científico en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid: El museo de la Farmacia Hispana, “El Ateneo”, No. IX–X, cuarta época, p. 57–65. Madrid 2002,

Mazuecos Jiménez E., Cajas para medicamentos en el Museo de la Farmacia Hispana, “Jano. Farmacia y Humanidades”, Madrid 2000, No. 1 (1), p. 16–21.

Mazuecos Jiménez E., El Museo de la Farmacia Hispana y los remedios del Nuevo Mundo [in:] Sánchez Del Barrio A. (dir.), Cartografía e Historia Natural del Nuevo Mundo, Diputación
de Valladolid, Valladolid 2006, p. 171–177.

Mazuecos Jiménez E., Una gran desconocida: La colección de publicidad farmacéutica del Museo de la Farmacia Hispana de la UCM [in:] Congreso Internacional Museos universitarios. Tradición y futuro, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 2015.

Mazuecos Jiménez E., Una experiencia concreta en los museos universitarios de la UCM: el Museo de la Farmacia Hispana [in:] Congreso Internacional Museos universitarios. Tradición y futuro, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 2015.

Puerto Sarmiento J., El Museo de la Farmacia Hispana, Offarm, Vol. 27 (1 extr.) Barcelona 2008, p. 112–117.

Puerto Sarmiento J., González Bueno A., Compendio de Historia de la Farmacia y legislación farmacéutica,Ed. Síntesis, Madrid 2011.

San Andrés Moya M. (dir.), Museos y colecciones Universidad Complutense,Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 2015.

Information

Information: Opuscula Musealia, Volume 24 (2016), Volume 24, pp. 15 - 23

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843852.OM.16.002.7435

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy - A Journey through History

English:

The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy - A Journey through History

Authors

Alejandra Gómez Martín

Published at: 01.07.2017

Article status: Open

Licence: None

Percentage share of authors:

Alejandra Gómez Martín (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 2232

Number of downloads: 1390

<p> The Museum of Spanish Pharmacy - A Journey through History</p>

Pobierz pełny tekst

Titles

Abstract

Keywords

References

Information

Authors