On the History of the Oldest Apothecary in Merano

Appendix.

Notes.

According to an account submitted by Friedrich von Geraut, judge of Passeyer, regarding the dues collected by him and the payments made therefrom in the years from Saint George's Day 1333 to Saint George's Day 1335 for King Henry, Duke of Carinthia and Count of Tyrol, he accounted among other items for fifteen Berner marks paid to the physician Master Pasculin for the establishment of an apothecary in Meran. (Magistro Pasculino medico pro apoteca facienda in Merano marc. XV.) If one calculates, following Mr. Festmaier (see in these sheets the appendix to issue no. 11 of the current year) and omitting an insignificant fraction, one Berner mark at 14 fl. 7 kr. imperial currency, the entire expenditure for this new apothecary amounted to no more than 214 fl. 15 kr. imperial currency. However, if one also takes into account that, as Mr. Festmaier assumes, one could purchase ten times more for the same amount of money then than nowadays, one would now have to spend 2142 fl. 30 kr. to establish an equivalent apothecary; and accordingly, a by no means insignificant expense would have been incurred for the first founding of such an institution, even if nothing further had been spent upon it beyond what Friedrich von Geraut accounted for. Moreover, this is likely to be the oldest trace of a Tyrolean apothecary.