Medicinal Plants and Other Medicinal Substances in the Work of John the Baptist Lalangue from the Year of 1776

Svijetao primjer Ivana Krstitelja Lalangua pokazuje da je Hrvatska već stoljećima sastavni dio Europe. Živahna razmjena ljudi i ideja odvija se od vremena pokrštavanja Hrvata do danas. U radu je prikazan rad jednog takvog došljaka iz zapadne Europe, koji ne samo da liječi bolesne, nego svojim spisateljskim radom nastoji podići stupanj prosvjećenosti običnoga puka. Njegova farmakopeja je i s gledišta ondašnje medicinske znanosti veoma jednostavna. U nju je uvrstio ljekovite biljke i druge ljekovite tvari koje su široko dostupne svima. Težište ovoga rada je na izvornom opisu pojedinih vračtvenih trav, prepisano radi čitljivosti na današnje pismo. Rad je dopunjen kratkim pregledom najznačajnijih dictionara (rječnika) i likaruša naših starijih autora. Opseg fitonimije u njima pokazuje u kojoj su mjeri ljudi određenog vremena bili upućeni u poznavanje biljaka i njihovu ljekovitost. Iako je Lalangue svoje prosvjetiteljske knjižice izvorno pisao na latinskom jeziku, koje su prevodili hrvatski franjevci, ipak je stekao častan naziv – začetnik hrvatske medicinske književnosti.The bright example of John the Baptist Lalangue proves that Croatia has been an integral part of Europe for centuries. A dynamic exchange of people and ideas has taken place ever since Croats were baptised. The paper deals with one such foreigner from Western Europe who not only healed sick people, but through his writings also strived to increase the level of enlightenment among common people. His pharmacopeia is very simple even from the perspective of the then medical science. It comprises medicinal plants and other medicinal substances that are easily available to everyone. This paper highlights the original description of certain medicinal herbs and is written in today’s language in order to facilitate the reading. The paper also contains an appendix listing the most important dictionaries and recipes by our older authors. The proportion of included pharmacopeia indicates the extent to which people living in a certain period of time were familiar with plants and their healing properties. Even though Lalangue wrote his enlightenment booklets, translated by Croatian Franciscans, originally in Latin, he nevertheless gained the honourable title of the father of Croatian medical literature