Urban life in Lithuania during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (2). Pharmacies

ENPharmacies are known to have existed in Lithuania since the early sixteenth century. When [the king of Poland] and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Alexander fell ill in Vilnius in 1506, the King’s court brought along with them a part of the so-called royal pharmacy from Cracow. It remained in Vilnius marking the inception of the first pharmacy in the city. In 1501, Grand Duke Sigismund the Old bought a land plot in Vilnius to build a townsfolk pharmacy on. The locations of the oldest pharmacies in Vilnius have not, however, been ascertained because of the lack of information at the present time. In 1523, the Grand Duke of Lithuania granted a privilege to the doctors to inspect pharmacies and medicine storerooms. In the mid-sixteenth century, several pharmacies operated in Vilnius.