[Medical history as an academic subject at the Bamberg University]

A full program of medicine was taught at the Catholic University of Bamberg (founded 1648 as the Academia Ottonia) from 1773 through 1803. Within this period of time, the History of Medicine was taught from 1790 through 1795 by Johann Baptist Dominicus Fin(c)k. This paper elucidates how in this instance protestant universities served as models for catholic universities. Interestingly, it was not the medical faculty itself which developed an interest in teaching medical history. Rather, it was Adalbert Friedrich Marcus (1753-1816), physician-in-waiting of the Prince-Bishop Franz Ludwig von Erthal and medical officer in the principality of Bamberg since June 22, 1790, who was charged by the Prince-Bishop with developing guidelines for medical education. The start of the History of Medicine lectures brought with it a heated dispute about an appropriate textbook. The discussion is evidence of a transition from historiography understood as an account of learned doctors of the past to a study of history in a modern sense.