Apothecary interior design

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj is hosted in the old apothecary shop of the town, in one of the corners of the main square. The Officina preserves as elements of interior design painted seventeenth-century medallions on the vault and nineteenth-century gilded busts of ancient gods and goddesses of healing (Asclepios/Aesculap and Hygeia). Such elements were meant to increase sales and stress the ancient tradition of the trade, counteracting the clients' possible distrust of the cures and recommendations. The Latin inscriptions of the apothecary jars and furniture on display were also intended to contribute to the pharmacist's presumable knowledge and culture.
Early modern pharmacists were among the first retail traders to invest in marketing and sales strategies, among which shop signs, windows and shutters and interior decoration played an important part.

Pondera pharmaceutica

Until around 1950 European pharmacists used a special system of measuring units for mass and volume different both from the current metric one and the historical one used in commerce. The apothecaries’ system employed units inspired by those used by ancient Romans and Greeks, such as libra, uncia or drachma. Furthermore, the units were not standardized and each city of administrative unit could have its own libra, uncia or drachma. Sometimes it is thus difficult to reconstruct the recipes, even if preserved prescriptions do mention quantities employed.

list of apothecary weights in the 18th century
Pharmacopoeia Austriaca Provincialis

Apothecary weights preserved at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj display markings according to this special system, the units of which were better known through their symbols:

set of apothecary weights on display in the Officina of the pharmacy museum in Cluj-Napoca

notation of the pondera in an  eighteenth-century inventory preserved at the pharmacy museum in Cluj-Napoca

Shaman jewelry

Being away from the studio too long always leads to a return to jewelry-making. With a new stash of lovely elements (some donated by my good friend and jewelry maker Viviana and some recently acquired from the minerals and gems exhibition in Cluj, Mineralia), I started a new set of unique necklaces. I have combined semi-precious stones, bone beads, leather elements, shells, connectors made of bronze, wood and glazed pottery and the result was so close to "statement jewelry" pieces that they made me think of shamanic accessories or "parade" objects of personal adornment.

They are available at www.atelieruldeistorie under "Novelties".

 

Museum activities

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca, on display in the old apothecary shop of the city, fits Orhan Pamuk's recommendations for the "museums of the future". It is a small, individual-oriented, atmospheric museum that displays an inter-connected array of topics (history medicine, pharmacy and homeopathy, history of disease, mentalities, commerce with exotic goods, urban development, early marketing strategies, history of poison, apothecary aphrodisiacs, alchemy and chemistry etc.) and provides glimpses into the multi cultural history of Transylvania (in relation to the nationality of the pharmacists and the language of apothecary manuscripts, books, labels and signatures).

Guess the apothecary ingredients

The display is "spiced up" with several interactive activities designed both for children and adults. The first is a selection of spices used by ancient apothecaries (cinnamon, anise, cocoa beans and butter, nutmeg, citrus peel etc.) that visitors are invited to smell and guess (list and bilingual - Ro-Engl - info on adjacent poster). The info provides insight into the commerce with and introduction to Transylvania of exotic goods from both the Americas and Asia via the Middle East.

Across the street - then and now

The second is more an issue of imagination and comparison, as a century-old photograph on a post card depicting the street and building vis-a-vis the pharmacy is exhibited by the window seat from where one can see the same spot. 

X-ray film by the 1915 Rontgen machine

The third interactive element is located in the medical equipment room where by the X-ray machines produced in 1915 and 1920 one can inspect radiography films from the twentieth century.

Scincus Officinalis

Stincus Marinus, the skink from the Scincidae family, is a sand lizard from Africa and Asia (also known as the „fish with leg” or „sand fish”), famous among the Jews due to the century-old debate on its kosher or non-kosher character. As a pharmaceutical ingredient Scincus Officinalis designated the powdered skeleton of this peculiar lizard, considered in Europe to be very effective in stirring passion, especially in young ladies. Another effect, apparently contradictory to the aphrodisiac one, is the diuretic effect and this it enter the composition of various remedies. The Scincus features in all European pharmacopoeias until the eighteenth century, including those from Transylvania. It also features in the inventories of the apothecary shops from the province during the sixteenth and the eighteenth century.

Sincus Marinus specimens

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca includes two such jars, dated to the eighteenth century, once used in a pharmacy from Baia Mare: a prolonged wooden box inscribed Scincus Marinus and a container with skeleton parts of such a lizard.

Collection of medical equipment

The History of Pharmacy museum in Cuj-Napoca includes and exhibits, in a room that was not part of the old apothecary shop, a distinct collection of ca. 500 items used in the hospitals and medical cabinets of Cluj between the 1890s and 1980s. Among the most valuable exhibits one can mention the earliest electrocardiograph from Romania, of the Einthoven type, single channel, produced in Paris in 1915, and Röntgen machines from the period 1915-1920. The largest lost has been donated by Prof. Pompiliu Manea in 1997, but other items have been subsequently offered by doctors and other private citizens.

The collection includes medical prints, X-ray machines, physiotherapy, gynecology, ophthalmology, dentistry microscopes and other kinds of instruments, tools and apparatus. 

Detail of the Boulitte Einthoven electrocardiograph of 1915

Ophthalmology lenses

Gynecological instruments

Radiostat for physiotherapy

 

Handmade leathercraft

As we [The Proper Leather Studio] have just started a new batch of natural leather, tooled wallets, I though I should show you our method. The first painstaking step is to cut all the elements - outside, money divider, pockets - at their required dimensions. The outside is cut of thicker veg tan leather as it is decorated through tooling. The chosen motif (a skull and an owl so far from the current lot) is transferred by hand on the damped piece of leather, incised and tooled. The pockets are meanwhile hand-dyed - all black for this project.

Veg-tan leather cut for several wallets

 

Hand dyed leather elements (dividers and pockets)

The tooled motifs are then blocked with Leather Sheen and/or Resolene (we use Tandy Leather products for this). Resolene does a better job at blocking but allows for less hue gradients of Gel Antique. Sheene is more permeable but better for some projects. It all depends on the intended effect.

Blocking tooled leather motifs

The next stage envisages hand dying the outside of the wallets - around the blocked motifs - by brush and sponge and then applying and wiping Gel Antique from the entire outer surface. The combination of colors is rather important here, considering that the dye is covered with the semi-transparent Gel Antique and the precise and sufficient blocking of the motif, that should remain leather-color, with the gel just stressing the indentations.

Hand-dyeing

The parts and then assembled, glued, sewed and the edges finished.
 See our finished products on ETSY.

The making of Goddess Gruia

I always believed that in contemporary Romania there are two ways of becoming rich: starting a cult/sect/religion and owning a private university. The second option seems rather too complicated and with the recent political scandals of plagiarized PhDs it seems a bit less attractive. So I turned to the first idea, checking the legislation - how many signatures required and how much time. The short answer was - a lot of both. Plus, the only cult I could adhere to is the Flying Spaghetti Monster - and that is done already! So this is how Goddess Gruia was born, as a parody, self-irony, an original art project and a Dalinian avida dollars initiative. Goddess Gruia. A Monograph also employs topoi of academic research in art history (iconography) and sociology (popular religiosity, history of religion) - my specialties, naturally. It is also a "FUBU" project, mainly by me for me - well, to the eternal glory of the goddess!

Sketches for the cult image and traits of Goddess Gruia

Sketch for iconic depictions

Goddess Gruia lino plate

The first linocut prints of Goddess Gruia with some of her attributes

Goddess Gruia. The Movie

 

The motion monograph is here as well, to spread the word of Goddess Gruia and the benefices of worshiping her! Improve your life now!!

Access the pdf version HERE.

Goddess Gruia. A Monograph. Free online

The promised and much awaited monograph book / art album of Goddess Gruia has finally been published. It contained everything about her cult, traits, iconography and worship. Read it now for your own benefit!

See also previous articles on the topic:

•  Goddess Gruia in Transylvanian mandorla 
•  The online temple of Goddess Gruia
•  Goddess Gruia - a monograph (introduction and preview)

Mud bricks

Camp Virtus has already seen the rise and fall of one clay oven - with the second one in the making. One of the things we have decided to change is the structure of the oven itself, not made of clay according to the wattle-and-daub technique, but out of clay bricks. What we did not know was how difficult it is to make clay bricks. Though the term mud brick suggests that very soft clay is used, such a technique proved impossible to implement as the "bricks" lost all shape when forced out of the mold. Using harder clay mix is on the other hand hard work, especially to push out from the mold. The last resort option was the make the bricks by hand - not so compact and not so large, but hopefully usable. We shall see this week how they have dried...

Mixing clay by feet with sand and dried grass

Footwork

Preparing the clay base of the oven

Empirical projection of the clay brick oven

Brick molding