Publication details
Tomáš Jordán, protomedicus Moraviae a brněnský lékař
| Title in English | Thomas Iordanus, protomedicus Moraviae and Brno physician |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Hortus Graeco-Latinus Cassoviensis IV. Zborník príspevkov z klasickej filológie, latinskej medievalistiky neolatinistiky. |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.33542/HTS-0302-9-0 |
| Keywords | history of medicine; Latin literature; Tomáš Jordán; Brno; 16th century; laus urbis |
| Description | The aim of the paper is to point out the ambivalent relationship of a prominent figure of early modern medicine, Thomas Jordan of Klausenburg (1540 - 1586), to Brno where he worked for a large part of his life. He made a name for himself outside Central Europe as an author of several writings on epidemiology and balneology. In Luis novae in Moravia exortae descriptio, he described an outbreak of an epidemic taking place in Brno at Christmas of 1577 which within a few months afflicted 80 people inside the city walls and about a hundred more in its immediate vicinity. The central part of the work contains a detailed description of the progression of the disease, its individual symptoms and treatment methods, based on which Jordan diagnosed it as an extragenital infection of syphilis and identified its source in the local baths. In the extensive introductory passages, he puts focus on the perks of Brno and its surroundings, deals with the life of its inhabitants, describes the region’s geography, water supplies, climatic conditions, cultivated crops, etc. In terms of genre, these passages can be regarded a sort of laus urbis and demonstrate its author’s fondness for Brno. However, an attentive reader cannot miss his remarks relativising this relationship. |