The collaboration between Andrija Štampar and Mirko Dražen Grmek in establishing the history of science in Croatia

Authors

  • Stella Zavod za povijest i filozofiju znanosti HAZU, Zagreb
  • Vjekoslav Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33604/sl.20.38.6

Keywords:

Andrija Štampar, Mirko Dražen Grmek, Division of History of Medical Sciences, Institute of History and Philosophy of Science, institutionalisation of the history of science, Croatia

Abstract

The paper presents the role of Andrija Štampar (1888–1958) and Mirko Dražen Grmek (1924–2000) in the institutionalisation and professionalisation of the history of medicine/science in Croatia. Based on the Yearbook of the Yugoslav (today Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts for the 1950–1958 period, course notes (1953, 1957), manuals for the course Introduction to Medicine (1961, 1971, 1996), and secondary literature, we investigated the nature of their relationship. We established that Štampar, apart from his distinguished pedagogical authority, also played a significant role in securing Grmek’s employment through the establishment of the Academy’s Department for the of History of Medical Sciences in 1952, an institution that marked an important starting point in the institutionalisation of the history of medicine in this region. The shaping of Grmek’s teaching status at the University of Zagreb’s School of Medicine in 1954 took place through his participation in Štampar’s Introduction to Medicine course, after his habilitation as an unsalaried private lecturer of the history of medicine in the same year. Štampar’s mentoring relationship with Grmek is evident in the transfer and encouragement of teaching and organisational skills, which Grmek developed in a new direction by shaping the history of science, a completely new discipline in the region. This scientific activity developed intensively within the Institute for the History of Natural, Mathematical and Medical Sciences, which Grmek founded in 1960, and continues to this day within the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the successor of the earlier Institute. Štampar and Grmek built original domains of humanism in medicine and the broader social and international context, sharing similar humanistic and holistic views on medicine, history, and society.

Published

2026-07-15

Issue

Section

Scientific review paper