Short communication, Note
Traces of health culture in the 1427 Code of Grbalj
Grozdana Milović-Karić
; Diplomirana pravnica, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Đorđe Milović
; Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
The Code of Grbalj regulated a number of legal issues in this area and marked the passage from common to statutory law. It brings several curiosities related to the health culture of the time, such as that a barber was not liable for patient’s death due to surgery. In fact, surgery was preceded by a symbolic act in which the barber would hand a razor to the patient, and the patient would hand it back. The intention of this provision was to protect the surgeon from blood feud. As for the corpse, the Code provided that it should be kept at home overnight and buried in the morning. Punitive provisions include stoning of the engaged couple in case of pregnancy, as engagement commanded absolute virtue. The punishment for striking parents was to cut off the hand that hit them; the ear was cut off or the nose scarred to permanently mark an adulteress or a woman who stole from the husband’s house and sold the stolen property to fill up her belly. Children who stole from the house and sold the property were punished by flogging with a chibouk.
Keywords
history of law and medicine; 15th century; code; Parish of Grbalj; Boka Kotorska
Hrčak ID:
91136
URI
Publication date:
15.6.2012.
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