Apotheke Damianus

14/09/2025

👀 Altijd al eens een archeoloog in actie willen zien? Dit is je kans!

Van 11 tot en met 27 september 2025 verandert de Gasthuisplaats in Delft in een publiekstoegankelijk archeologisch onderzoek, waar de Middeleeuwen tot leven komen.

De Gasthuisplaats is een plek van uitzonderlijke historische waarde. Sinds de middeleeuwen was dit de locatie van een ziekenhuis. Archeologen hopen hier veel te leren over het dagelijks leven en te begrijpen hoe zorg in de middeleeuwen werd georganiseerd. 🔍

📅 Op zaterdag 13, 20 en 27 september, tussen 10.00 en 16.00 uur is iedereen welkom om het onderzoek live te volgen, uitleg te krijgen van archeologen en het verborgen verleden van deze plek te ervaren. Iedere zaterdag is er een nét iets ander programma.

Geïnteresseerden zijn ook welkom op donderdagen en vrijdagen tussen 13.15 en 16.00 uur.

🎫 Toegang is gratis!

Kom je ook? Check onze website voor meer informatie 👉 https://erfgoeddelft.nl/nieuws/gasthuisplaats

Reinier de Graaf Gemeente Delft

12/09/2025

Ricotta, also spelled recotta or ricopta, is a by-product of cheese production obtained by cooking whey again (hence the name ri-cotta, which literally means re-cooked) with the addition of milk. This dairy product appears to have been absent from ancient culinary culture, as confirmed in the 17th century by Vincenzo Tanara, author of the agricultural treatise L’economia del cittadino in villa, which we will analyze later. It is incorrect, he writes, to identify ricotta with Columella’s oxygala, and we can see why: in fact, it seems to be a very different dairy product, oxygala being a type of curd or yogurt. This is further evidenced by the fact that, when preparing oxygala, the whey is trickled. In addition, oxygala does not require cooking.
Ricotta is mentioned in the late-medieval Italian sources (contrary to Tanara’s opinion, who attributes the first descriptions of ricotta to the 16th-century author Geronimo Cardano), although the authors acknowledge that it had already been described by authors such as Avicenna. The diffusion of this product in Arabic culture is evident from its presence in the various illustrated Tacuina Sanitatis.
The full article is available on Patreon with translations from Vincenzo Tanara's L'economia del cittadino in villa, Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s Discorsi sulla Materia Medica di Dioscoride, and Baldassarre Pisanelli's Historie Naturali.
https://www.patreon.com/c/historicalitaliancooking

Image: recocta from a 14th-century Tacuinum Sanitatis

09/09/2025

UPDATE voldoende mensen gevonden. GEZOCHT: UITBEELDER VAN EEN MEDISCH BEROEP (13e–17e EEUW)

Voor een open dag bij een archeologische opgraving op de Gasthuisplaats in Delft, aanstaande zaterdag 13 september, zijn wij dringend op zoek naar iemand die een medisch beroep uit de 13e tot en met de 17e eeuw kan uitbeelden. Denk aan een barbier-chirurgijn tandarts of dergelijke.

We bieden een zeer ruime vergoeding en een gegarandeerd leuke en interessante dag. Bezoekers zijn geïnteresseerd en er is veel ruimte voor interactie.

Delen van deze oproep wordt zeer gewaardeerd.

Als je interesse hebt, stuur me een bericht met je voorstel.

31/08/2025

*** How to arm a knight: 13 Middle Dutch texts, 1225-1350 ***

Best quotes from the Low Countries, 1225-1350!
This (very) long article is currently in early access for my top patrons - Nobleman/Noblewoman and upwards. https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-to-arm-13-137663270

What's featured:
- Iron crossbows from before 1240;
- coat of plates from Westphalia;
- "thick" or "light" gambesons;
- coats of plates with 27 or 7 plates;
- pourpoints, gambesons and aketons in abundance;
- war flail;
- early shoulder plates and armguards;
- a wild mix of French, German and Dutch influences: 52 terms in over 100 passages, hand-picked from 13 Middle Dutch romances!

The texts surveyed:
- Trojaansche Oorlog by Segher Dieregotgaf (ca. 1240)
- Ferguut (1225-1250)
- Walewein (ca. 1250)
- Perchewael (ca. 1250)
- Lantsloot vander Haghedochte (ca. 1260)
- Jacob van Maerlant - Historie von Troie (1264)
- Historie van Malegijs (1250-1300)
- Heinrik van aken - Die Rose (1280)
- Worringen battle in 1288, by Jan van Heelu (1288-1294)
- Van sente Aeghten (1290)
- Alexanders Geesten (ca. 1300)
- Anoniem Seghelijn van Jherusalem (1330-1350)
- Grimbergse Oorloog (1350)

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30/08/2025

27/08/2025

Times and Distances Series 11:

Map of the World, Spain 1220

from Beatus a Liébana, "Commentarius in Apocalypsim", MS NAL 2290, ff. 13v-14r, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

Written in 776 by the Spanish theologian Beatus of Liébana (c. 730–after 785), the text is famous for its spectacular illuminations depicting the "Book of Revelation", such as this one representing the orbis terrarum, namely the known world. This particular representation is also known as the "Beatus Map".

The map itself serves no explicit theological purpose, except perhaps that of illustrating the variety of peoples and cities in the world, which, in the eschatological view of the Book of Revelation, will be subject to God's judgment, damnation, or salvation. The map functions not only as a visual representation of the inhabited world, but also as a kind of genesis of it, featuring its history—most notably with Adam and Eve prominently depicted at the top.

This version of Beatus of Liébana's Apocalypsis, also known as the "San Andrés de Arroyo Codex", was created around 1220 for King Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252) at the Monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, in Burgos, Spain.

09/08/2025

11/07/2025

07/07/2025

History of Pharmacy Series 21:

A Physician and his Apprentice Testing Drugs - Germany, 1446

from "Medical Miscellany", MS Add. 17987, f. 101r, The British Library, London.

This illustration could be interpreted in various ways. Given the red colour of the bowls, one possible reading is that the physician is discussing the variety of blood colours and their significance for diagnosis. Since, however, the physician appears to be offering the bowl to his apprentice (or is it a woman?), and the colour palette is very limited (just red, green, and yellow), the more likely interpretation is that the different bowls contain distinct medical preparations, ready to be tested.

Pharmacological testing has a long history. Refined by the Persian physician and polymath Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980–1037), it can be traced back to Galen’s treatise "On Simple Medicines" ("De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus").

Galen advises always to test a drug in its purest form, to avoid side effects, to observe it over a long period, to assess the consistency of its effects and individual variations, to test on humans (as in his theory it is the body that reacts to the medicine, not the other way round), and to begin with a minimal dosage, increasing it until the effects become manifest.

Over time, these protocols became standardised and provided the rationale for pharmacology up to the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840).