Rubens's portrait

The eldest son of the grocer in the Appelstraat (Apple Street) in Antwerp was a remarkable young man – ambitious, handsome and smart. His name was Bartholomeus Rubens. In 1527, when Bartholomeus was twenty-five, his father died and he inherited his trade. Shortly afterwards, he won the hand of Barbara Arents, daughter of an aristocratic family. She would marry beneath her station, but her parents were convinced that Bartholomeus had sound plans. He wanted to use his inheritance to work his way up from grocer-druggist to the profession of pharmacist, which was at the time gaining prestige.

Until late in the fifteenth century, there was no clear distinction between grocers, druggists and pharmacists. The grocer and the druggist sold spices and herbs, preserved fruits, aromatic wines, perfumery, honey, sugar, confectionery, marzipan and household goods such as white powder, wax, cotton wool, cotton yarn and paints. They also had medicinal powders and herbs, and concoctions imported from the Orient. The pharmacist sold more or less the same products, plus theriacs and medicinal oils. The three professions also shared the use of scales, and in Antwerp that was the ground on which they came together in the guild of storekeepers. Officially, there was only one threshold for whoever wanted to open a pharmacy in the city: financial contribution to that guild. In many other cities, pharmacists were registered together with grocers, and that lasted until the end of the fifteenth century.

Increasingly, however, city councillors objected to this arrangement, arguing that poorly educated or dishonest salesmen of medicines produced too many victims, while the councillors could do nothing to supervise their trade. Early in the sixteenth century, then, ordinances were issued in Flemish, German and Dutch cities to curb the activities of ‘Quack doctors, Starwatchers and similarly odd people’ (Quaksalvers, Starrekijckers or diergelijcke curieuse personen in an ordinance in Amsterdam, 1555). They were, for instance, allowed to sell their pills and ointments on only one day of the week, and a salesman who sold poison could be burned alive.

To distinguish themselves from ‘similarly odd people’, the serious suppliers of medicines, vomitives and laxatives organised exams with acknowledged physicians, who questioned them about their knowledge of herbs and medicines.