PHARMACOPOEJA HOLMIENSIS

The first Swedish pharmacopeia. Before 1686 there was no official Swedish medical formulary. The first apothecaries in Sweden were brought from Germany. These immigrants used German pharmacopeias, dispensatories or herbals with descriptions of the collecting of plants, their preparation and effects. The Pharmacopeia Augustana was of special influence. The Pharmacopoeia Holmiensis in Latin comprises over 800 preparations, divided into 22 classes. It contains both the old ’Galenic’ and the new chemical or ’Spagyrical’ pharmaceutics, the latter collected in the final class as a supplement, the ’Medicamentis chymicis’ with some fifty remedies (a full description is found in Ahlberg, p 341 ff.). Many of the Galenic preparations were of a most complicated composition, which resulted in complaints being voiced against the mandatory pharmacopoeia. Apothecaries even refused to take the prescribed oath largerly because the dispensatory contained recipes almost impossible to prepare and which they claimed to be opposed to pharmaceutical practise. The 1756 Sumptuary Enactment, forbidding the importation of foreign luxury and superfluous goods, included many pharmaceutical articles. The Collegium Medicum was therefore forced to produce a provisional revision of the pharmacopoeia, which is why a supplement appeared in 1757 (Kongl. Collegii Medici Underrättelse om Några ändringar i Stockholmske Pharmacopoéen) according to which no less than 44 compounds were to be expunged from the Pharmacopoeia Holmiensis and the preparations of several others were to be modified. About the same time, preparatory efforts began for a new official Swedish pharmacopoeia. Up to the first edition of the new Pharmacopoea Svecica, which appeared in 1775, the above regulations constitute what was officially applicable for the apothecaries in Sweden. The main responsibility for the new dispensatorium was entrusted to one of the youngest members of the Collegium Medicum, Johann Martin Ziervogel (1657–1701). He was the son of Samuel Ziervogel, the immigrated German court apothecary and founder of the renowned Ziervogel dynasty of pharmacists. Johann Martin Ziervogel ran a respected medical practice in Stockholm and in due course became court physician-in-ordinary. In 1698 he was enobled Rothlöben. The rare engraved frontispiece that was intended to adorn the Pharmacopoeia Holmiensis is found in a very few copies only. It is, however, more often found in copies of the Medical Proclamation (Medicinal-Ordningar) issued with the Taxa in 1698-99. For a description of this plate click on its thumbnail.

Collation: Pp (12), 173, (9). With inserted engraved frontispiece.

Binding: Early 19th century half calf, gilt ruled spine, marbled boards.