Marcin of Urzędów (, ; ca. 1500–1573) was a Polish

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

known especially for his ''Herbarz polski'' ("Polish

Herbal A herbal is a book containing the names and descriptions of plants, usually with information on their medicinal, Herbal tonic, tonic, culinary, toxic, hallucinatory, aromatic, or Magic (paranormal), magical powers, and the legends associated wi ...

"). Marcin, son of Szymon, was born in Urzędów,

Lublin Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in the southeastern part of the country, with its capital being the city of Lublin. The region is named after its largest city and regional capital, Lu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. From 1517 to 1525, he studied at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. After graduation, he stayed at the university as a lecturer in physics, mathematics, logic and philosophy. He became the head of the university's '' Collegium Minus'' (Minor College) in 1529 and was named dean in 1533, the same year when he was ordained priest. Between 1533 and 1535, he continued his studies at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

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where he achieved the degree of

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

. He later traveled to

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and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Upon his return to Poland, he was given a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; , ) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (), situated on the Vistula River near its confluence with the San, in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy ...

. Marcin became a pastor at Urzędów parish in 1544 and additionally at another parish in nearby Modliborzyce in 1546. In 1563, he became a canon at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sandomierz. Marcin ran the Holy Spirit Hospital in Sandomierz and, until 1561, worked as hetman Jan Tarnowski's court physician. Between 1542 and 1557, he was writing his two-volume ''opus magnum'' whose full title is ''Herbarz polski, to iest o przyrodzeniu zioł y drzew rozmaitych, y innych rzeczy do lekarztw należących'' ("Polish Herbal, or Of the Complexion of Various Herbs and Trees, and Other Things of which Medicines Comprise"). Marcin of Urzędów died on June 22, 1573, in Sandomierz, where he was buried. The ''Polish Herbal'' was published in 1595, i.e. 22 years after its author's death.

External links

*
Urzędów official website
*
Full scan of ''Herbarz polski
at Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa (Greater Poland Digital Library) *
Grzaniec Marcina z Urzędowa
(traditional hot wine based on Marcin's recipe) {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcin of Urzedow 1573 deaths Jagiellonian University alumni Academic staff of Jagiellonian University 16th-century Polish botanists People from Sandomierz Polish pharmacists 16th-century Polish physicians 16th-century Polish Roman Catholic priests Catholic clergy scientists University of Padua alumni Year of birth uncertain

See also

External links