Original scientific paper
Per relationem medicorum: Fifteenth-Century Ragusan Criminal Records as Sources for the Medical History
Tatjana Buklijaš
Abstract
Volumes 5 (1421-1424) and 6 (1430-1431) of the Libri malefitiorum series, one of the four existing series of fifteenth-century criminal court procedures filed at the State Archives of Dubrovnik, have been examined. The article traces all the cases in which there is record of doctors (physicians and surgeons), apothecaries, barbers, pharmacies, hospitals, or outbreaks of epidemic disease in Dubrovnik. The objective of this article is to establish the number, as well as the qualifications, of the medical experts-physicians or surgeons-engaged by Dubrovnik‘s health authorities in the aforementioned period. The cases in which the doctors reported assault and those in which medical evidence was required in a court of law have been investigated with regard to the assault weapon and the anatomical location of the injury. The article is also concerned with the elements of expert evidence, along with the motives behind the non-execution of autopsy in cases of death due to unexplained cause. A parallel between forensic medical practice in Dubrovnik and Venice is being drawn.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
11750
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2001.
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