The old prints will enrich the collections of the Museum of the History of Medicine MUW under a deposit agreement signed by Elżbieta Rogowska, Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and Prof. Rafał Krenke, Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw.
The recovered old prints are 18th-century richly decorated pharmacopeia:
- Pharmacopoeia Argentoratensis, published in Argentoratum (Strasbourg) in 1725
- Dispensatorium Pharmaceuticum Austriaco-Viennense, published in Vienna in 1729, reprinted in 1751
- Pharmacopoeia Argentoratensis, published in Strasbourg in 1757
Books and archives are the least documented area among the antiquities seized during the war. The discovery and return of old prints is therefore a special situation.
- We are happy every time someone who owns monuments decides to return them. Our job is also to arouse such reflection - stressed Elżbieta Rogowska, Deputy Director of the Cultural Heritage Department at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
- Thank you for your kindness and for donating these old prints. They are very important to us. As we develop this modern university, we try not to forget the past, which is an important element in building an academic identity - said Prof. Rafal Krenke, Rector of MUW.
- After more than 80 years, the old prints are returning to the university, to their rightful place. They will enrich the collection of old prints, which numbers about 150 pieces - added Grażyna Jermakowicz, Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine MUW.
The signing ceremony was also attended by Prof. Michał Grąt, Vice Rector for International Relations, Development and Promotion, Piotr Luliński, MD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, as well as the representatives of the Museum of the History of Medicine MUW and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Who was Theophilus Tugendhold?
Teofil Tugendhold (1855-1935) held the title of provisional pharmacist (equivalent to a master's degree). He worked at Poznański Pharmacy in Łódź, where he created a pharmaceutical library. His interests focused on the history of the origin and development of pharmacy. He collected pharmacognostic preparations, Japanese plants, books and magazines. He worked on a bibliography of pharmaceutical publications, and published scientific and popular science texts in the press.
In 1922, he donated his entire valuable library, comprising some 800 volumes of old prints, to the Library of the Department of Applied Pharmacy. In 1940, this collection was deported in its entirety by the German administration. On March 20, 2023, a package containing the lost old prints was delivered to the Main Library of the Medical University of Warsaw. Their previous owners from Potsdam, in an enclosed letter, indicated that they had found them in the course of determining the inheritance from their deceased parents. The decision to donate the old prints was their own initiative.
