Gildepenningen van de Amsterdamse chirurgijns*

Between around 1620 and the end of the eighteenth century, every surgeon working in Amsterdam was presented with a guild medal on passing their surgeon’s exams. These medals actually represented membership of the Surgeon’s Guild of Amsterdam and could be used as proof of attendance at meetings of the Guild. From 1864 onwards surgeons also received the Hortus medal, which allowed them entry to the Hortus Medicus. Less common medals include medals for ensuring the surgeon’s apprentices attended lectures, funeral medals for ensuring correct procedures regarding casket bearing duties were followed at a funeral, and medals of honour recognising services to the Guild. The collection of 17th and 18th century Amsterdam Surgeon’s Guild medals numbers some 230 examples, and is the largest and most varied collection of its kind in the world. A few of the medals that have been preserved actually belonged to surgeons depicted in the famous series of group portraits. We examined who these surgeons were and what the purpose of these medals was.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.