Barbosa Pharmacy

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Painted carved wood

Paço de Sousa, Portugal

1770-1790

Inv. no. 2746

Pharmacy Museum Lisbon


The Barbosa Pharmacy belonged to the Monastery of Paço de Sousa and functioned as a monastery apothecary, with its numerous niches and shelves filled with pieces of Portuguese 18th century pharmacy stoneware.


The pharmacy counter, which is posterior to the frame, is decorated with artistic carvings, bearing at the center the initials of the founder of the pharmacy at the village of Paço de Sousa – Manuel Rodrigues Barbosa. Barbosa seems to have practiced the profession of pharmacist at the monastery apothecary, having acquired in 1834 the framing, books, several instruments and other artifacts from the Monastery of Paço de Sousa, upon the extinction of the religious orders in Portugal.


The set includes the original ceiling of the pharmacy, with a border decorated with Baroque-inspired vegetable motifs. The central niche of larger dimensions is intended to receive a religious image to guide the activity of the pharmacist. The bodies of cases with shelves have drawers in the lower part to receive the medicinal plants and the simple remedies, while on the shelves are the famous hand-painted or stamped pharmacy canudos (cylindrical drug jars) ovoid drug jars and apothecary jars of profuse baroque ornamentation or representing private and religious Coats of Arms. With two shades of blue monochrome paint, some have the Latin inscription of the therapeutic product in its inside, or a space intended to receive the label or inscription.


A large majority of the Portuguese stoneware on display at this pharmacy belonged to apothecaries of convents of religious orders as diverse as the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, St. Philip Neri (Oratory), Third Order of St. Francis, Jesuits, Poor Clare, and to the monastic military orders of Aviz and Santiago. It is also worth mentioning the excellent collection of apothecary jars and drug pots that belonged to the apothecary of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Viana, which placed its order at the Darque factory in 1774.