Following are images of the apothecary -- a sort of pharmacist or druggist -- and the apothecary's shop. Click here (or scroll down this page) to see extant examples of apothecary jars and containers, as well as other assorted depictions of them.

See also the apothecary museums at Heidelberg, Brixen, Krakow, and Troyes.

• An apothecary in a southern French collection of medical treatises (SBB Lat. qu. 198), 1132
• Abû Zayd practices medicine, Maqâmât 47 (BNF Arabe 6094, fol. 174), 1222-1223
• Abû Zayd practices medicine (fol. 154v) and Abû Zaid requests payment (fol. 155v), Maqâmât 47 (BNF Arabe 5847), 1236-1237
• An apothecary's shop, Circa instans (British Library Sloane 1977, fol. 49v), c. 1300-1310
Ful redy hadde he hise apothecaries
To sende him drogges and his letuaries,
For ech of hem made oother for to wynne -
Hir frendshipe nas nat newe to bigynne.



The Canterbury Tales
General Prologue, description of the Physician
ll. 427-430

For more references to apothecaries in The Canterbury Tales, see the beginning of The Pardoner's Tale, or Pertelote's advice to Chanticleer in The Nun's Priest's Tale.

• Theriac, Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF NAL 1673, fol. 87v), c. 1390-1400
• The apothecary, Liber de Moribus hominum (BNF Fr. 1165, fol. 42), end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century
• Theriac, Tacuinum Sanitatis (BNF Latin 9333, fol. 51v), 15th century
• The apothecary (fol. 251v) and an apothecary's shop (fol. 261), Schachzabelbuch des Konrad von Ammenhausen (WLB Cod. poet. 2, fol. 251v), 1467
• The apothecary, Schachzabelbuch (ÖNB 3049, fol. 132v), 1479
• The apothecary, Liber de Moribus hominum (BNF Fr. 2000, fol. 33), 1480-1485
• An apothecary's pharmacy, Livre des propriétés des choses (BNF Fr. 218, fol. 111), end of the 15th century
• An apothecary's shop, fresco at Issogne, late 15th-early 16th century
• A doctor in a pharmacy with a pupil from a book on surgery (GNM HB 26129), 1497
• The bazaar at Kûfa, Mahzan al-Asrâr (BNF supp. turc 978, fol. 41), first half of the 16th century
• Portrait of Pierre Quthe, apothecary by François Clouet, 1562
• Portrait of Cyriakus Schnauss by Mathis Zündt, 1565
• The apothecary, Das Ständebuch, 1568
• Christ as an apothecary, c. 1580
• Portrait of Andreas Heindel, 1597

The illustrations above show the apothecary in front of shelves of containers of materia medica. Following are actual examples of those containers, as well as other assorted depictions of such containers.

A few of the containers are better known by their Italian names: the most common of these terms are the albarello (usually a cylindrical jar, often containing ointments) and the orciuolo (a large oval jar, often with two handles, for liquids).

Mary Magdalene is often depicted with a small apothecary jar; according to Magdalene.org,

This jar is meant to remind the viewer of Mary Magdalene's role as the woman who went to the tomb to anoint Jesus after the Sabbath, only to find him resurrected. To the extent that Mary Magdalene was believed to have been the woman who performed the anointing before the crucifixion, the jar was related to that scene as well.

• Albarello jar made in Samarkand in the 10th century
• Storage jar (albarello) made in Iran in the late 13th or early 14th century
• Jar made in Egypt or Syria in the beginning of the 14th century (another view)
• Albarello with fleur-de-lys decoration made in Syria in the first half of the 14th century
• Albarello with pseudo-Kufic letters, made in Paterna in the 14th century
• Albarello with two rabbits, made in Paterna in the 14th century
• Albarello in fritware with blue decoration, made in Syria in the 14th century
• Albarello with geometric ornament made in Manises c. 1400-1420
• Albarello made in Manises c. 1400-1425
• Albarello made in Manises c. 1400-1425
• Albarello made in Manises c. 1400-1425
• Relief-blue jar with harpies and birds made in Florence (attributed to the workshop of Piero di Mazeo and Company) c. 1420-1440
Oakleaf jars attributed to the workshop of Giunta di Tugio, Florence
• Jar with portraits c. 1382-1431
• Jar with fleur-de-lys c. 1382-1450
• Jar with a lion c. 1425-1450
• Jar with a fish c. 1425-1450
• Jar with a bird c. 1430
• Jar with a boar c. 1431
• Jar (orciuolo) with a crane c. 1431
• Jar with a bird and the mark of the Santa Nuova Hospital c. 1431
• Jar with oakleaf decoration made in Florence c. 1430
• Jar with a lion made in Florence c. 1430
• Jar with oakleaf decoration and a lion and the mark of the Santa Nuova Hospital made in Florence c. 1431
• Jar with oakleaf decoration made in Florence c. 1450
• Jar made in Tuscany c. 1450
• Albarello made in Tuscany, c. 1450
• Jar with foliate decoration made in Montelupo c. 1450
• Jar with a Kufic pattern made in the Florentine area in the mid-1400s
• St. Mary Magdalene from a predella by Gabriel Häring, c. 1452-1461
• Detail from St. Cosmas and St. Damian in the Andreasaltar at the church of St. Agidius in Bardejov, c. 1455-1465
• Pharmacy bottles decorated with greyhounds chasing hares made in Faenza c. 1460-80
• Detail of St. Damian from an altarpiece from Blühnbach, c. 1470-1500
• Apothecary jar (albarello) made in or near Florence c. 1470-1490
• St. Mary Magdalene from a Steiermark altarpiece, c. 1475-1485
• Albarello made in Faenza, c. 1480
• Apothecary jar (orciolo) made in or near Florence c. 1480-1520
• Detail from the Eggelsberg altarpiece, 1481
• St. Mary Magdalene from a Bad Goisern altarpiece, c. 1490-1500
• Detail from The Death of Mary by Friedrich Pacher, c. 1490-1500
• Four small glass bottles and three small glass bottles from Regensburg, 15th and 16th centuries
• Jar with a woman and geese made in Deruta or Montelupo, c. 1500-1525
• Albarello (inscribed "VA T'EN QUITTE") made in Beauvais c. 1500-1536
• An imported medicine jar from Beauvais c. 1500-1550
• Albarello with nymph and satyr made in Deruta in 1507
• Cylindrical drug jar made in Faenza c. 1510
• Albarello with grotesques and ornamental bands made in Siena c. 1510-1515
• Pharmacy jar made in Siena in 1515
• Mary Magdalene by Ambrosius Benson, c. 1530
• Pottery, pewter, and wooden medicine containers (and what they contained), and wooden utensils, from the barber-surgeon's chest on the Mary Rose, 1545
• Albarello by Masséot Abaquesne c. 1545
• Albarello by Masséot Abaquesne, mid-16th century
• Drug jar (albarello), made in Nîmes or Montpellier c. 1550 (V&A C.242-1931)
• Tall drug jar with two infants riding a griffin made at the workshop of Orazio Pompeii in Castelli in the mid-16th century
• Albarello with the bust of a woman made at the workshop of Orazio Pompeii in Castelli in the mid-16th century
• Tall drug jar with Cleopatra contemplating an asp made at the workshop of Orazio Pompeii in Castelli in the mid-16th century
• Drug jar (albarello), made in Nîmes c. 1550-1600 (V&A C.88-1944)
• Drug jar (albarello), made in Nîmes in the late 16th century (V&A C.1-1935)
• Drug jar (albarello), made in Nîmes or Montpellier in the late 16th century (V&A C.149-1951)
• Drug jar (albarello), made in Montpellier c. 1575-1625 (V&A C.300-1938)
• Wet drug jar (albarello), made in Montpellier or Bruxelles c. 1575-1625 (V&A C.303-1938)
• Wet drug jar (albarello), made in Nîmes c. 1580 (V&A C.150-1951)
• Albarellos with the Annunciation and St. Frances of Rome and the angel, made at the workshop of Jean Estève in Montpelier at the end of the 16th century