Medicine in Old Romanian Literature
The period between 1508 and 1830 is the time when historians believe that early printed books were produced in the Romanian-speaking world
Steliu Lambru, 06.04.2026, 11:36
The period between 1508 and 1830 is the time when historians believe that early printed books were produced in the Romanian-speaking world. Just as today, images had a greater impact on readers back then as well, and they always accompanied printed works.
Anca Tatay of the Central University Library in Cluj has been researching the history of the Romanian book for more than two decades and has also turned her attention to the images found in medical books, which she has divided into three categories. The first category comprises images of illness and depictions of the body afflicted by suffering. The second category consists of images related to healing or remedies. In these, we see that healing is of divine/liturgical inspiration, natural inspiration, and, later, scientific inspiration. The third category of images includes figures from the world of medicine; these are portraits of the authority that legitimizes healing: Jesus Christ, miracle-working saints, and renowned physicians from antiquity through the 19th century. A fourth category of images consists of healing plants. There are also images depicting the biblical themes of healing the blind and the paralytic. Anca Tatay has also identified depictions of liturgical healing practices such as anointing and magical practices such as metoposcopy, and, closer to our own time, depictions of the human body and internal organs.
In her presentation on ancient Romanian medical texts, Anca Tatay began with the earliest examples.
“The first references to the concept of illness appear alongside religious texts, which are predominant. I am referring to the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda and the healing of the man born blind. The oldest depictions of these two themes are found in the Slavonic Pentecostal Triodion printed by Deacon Coresi in Târgoviște in 1558. These engravings differ from those that would appear after 1700. However, in the period between 1558, when these engravings appeared, and 1700, there is a hiatus; no engravings on this theme appear. The New Testament describes the healings of two paralytics, one from Bethesda and one from Capernaum. The first is healed by Jesus because of his faith, while the one from Capernaum is healed because the four men carrying him on a mat had faith in Christ. In the case of the blind, the New Testament describes three healings: that of the man born blind, that of the man from Bethsaida, and that of the man from Jericho. All five of these depictions are widely found in European and Romanian iconography, and most often the depictions are canonical.”
In the 18th century, however, these depictions reappear. Anca Tatay:
“In the 17th century, we have no depictions. But starting in 1700, we find several works depicting the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda and the healing of the man born blind. The first depiction of this kind is the one from 1701 in the Triodion of Buzău. In The Healing of the Lame Man, also known as The Healing of the Paralytic or the Cripple, we find Jesus, followed by the apostles, haloed, approaching the sick man’s bed and asking him: Do you want to be healed? To which he replies: Lord, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. This dialogue is rendered in the image through inscriptions that seem to emerge from the mouths of the two figures. Then the Lord says to him: Rise, take up your bed, and walk! Behind the paralytic are other figures—Pharisees and scribes, identifiable by their lavish robes, turbans, and ornate mitres—as well as a crowd of sick people, one of whom has a wooden leg and a crutch under his arm, on which he leans. These images would later be adopted as models; all others depicting these themes would be more or less inspired by the engravings from Buzău. They, in turn, are inspired by the engravings from Kyiv in the Triod of Tsvednaia (Pentecostar) of 1631, reproduced in Petru Movilă’s Sermon.”
Romania’s transition to secularism came late, a trend also reflected in the evolution of printing. Anca Tatay.
“Mircea Tomescu, a leading book historian, states the following: religious books are still predominant. Of the 384 books printed between 1717 and 1780, 324—or 84%—are religious, and only 60—or 15%—are secular works. The number of secular books increased only slightly during this period. The predominance of religious books can be explained by the Church’s continued monopoly on printing. Printing presses operated alongside metropolitan sees, bishoprics, and monasteries, and in order for a book to be printed, it had to have the blessing of the bishop or metropolitan. However, in 1784, following the emergence of secular printing houses and the practice of publishing certain works at the expense of private individuals, royal censorship was introduced alongside ecclesiastical censorship. These restrictive measures, through the application of dual censorship—ecclesiastical and royal—thus delayed the development of printing in Wallachia. A similar situation existed in Moldavia. Unable to print their original works or translations within the country, authors were forced to turn to secular printing houses in Sibiu, Vienna, and later to the one in Buda.”
Books on ancient Romanian medicine are part of a broader historical narrative. They illustrate the evolution of how knowledge about humans, diseases, and healing has been understood in the Romanian context. (MI)
