Finds of apothecary glass in the main street of Zadar – Kalelarga; remarks on the operation of pharmacies in Zadar in late 19th century

Rad se temelji na skupini neobjavljenih pretežno ambalažnih ljekarničkih bočica sa samog kraja XIX. stoljeća, pronađenih u središtu Zadra, u blizini glavnog gradskog trga (Narodni trg). Posebnu pažnju plijene primjerci staklene ambalaže popularnih proizvoda široke primjene kao što je eliksir na bazi matičnjaka (Spirito di melissa) iz destilerije venecijanskih karmelićana, zatim ljekovita mineralna voda s izvora Roncegno u sjevernoj Italiji ili pilule Giacomini rađene po recepturi poznatog padovanskog profesora medicine i farmacije. Obrađeni nalazi zanimljivi su i s aspekta tehnologije staklarske proizvodnje kraja XIX. i početka XX. stoljeća kada se intenzivno radi na automatizaciji procesa puhanja, prvo usavršavanjem pomoćnih mehanizama, pa patentiranjem raznovrsnih poluautomatskih strojeva i konačno primjenom posve automatskog stroja za proizvodnju staklene ambalaže, prvenstveno boca.A group of around twenty almost complete glass bottles, which are analysed in this paper, was discovered during protective archaeological explorations of a housing block in the very heart of Zadar, at the beginning of the street Kalelarga, or rather on the current location of the Art Hotel Kalelarga. The products have been individually presented in fourteen brief catalogue units. Typological analysis was further used for interpretation of the function and meaning of every single item, as well as for presenting a much wider cultural and social context of the city of Zadar at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Most bottles functioned as packing glass. They contained popular medicinal products with a broad spectrum of application, such as melissa elixir (Spirito di melissa) from the distillery of Venetian Carmelites; mineral water from the source Roncegno in northern Italy; or Giacomini pills, prepared according to the recipe of the famous professor of medicine and pharmacy from Padua. All the listed products, their origin and distribution, have been mentioned in numerous newspapers dating from the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Their use by the inhabitants of Zadar is of particular interest. Local weekly newspapers (Il Dalmata, Narodni list), and regular advertisements of well-known pharmacies and specialised shops witness thereto. Apart from hand-made medicinal preparations, the best known Zadar pharmacists of the second half of the 19th century – Andrović and Brčić – distributed final products too; among them, the aforementioned melissa elixir and the Roncegno mineral water. Though the group find of bottles found in Kalelarga cannot be brought into connection with any concrete pharmacy’s operation, of great importance is the fact that mainly archival data on the distribution of popular medicinal products have been indirectly and materially collected in the very heart of the city