Frederick II separated the pharmacist from the physician by law in 1240.
For most of recorded history, the person who diagnosed an illness was the same person who prepared the remedy. Physicians mixed their own medicines, and the boundary between healer and herbalist was invisible. In 1240, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II issued the Edict of Salerno, which formally separated the practice of pharmacy from the practice of medicine.1 Physicians were prohibited from owning apothecary shops, and apothecaries were prohibited from practicing medicine.
The edict also required apothecaries to swear an oath to prepare medicines faithfully according to established formulas. It was one of the earliest pieces of consumer protection legislation in Europe.2
The word "apothecary" entered English from Old French apotecaire, itself from Late Latin apothecarius, meaning a storekeeper. The Latin root apotheca meant a storehouse or warehouse, borrowed from Greek apotheke, from apo- (away) and tithenai (to place).3 The person who dispensed medicine was, at the level of language, simply someone who kept things on shelves.
In England, the apothecary occupied an ambiguous position for centuries. The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries received its royal charter in 1617, separating from the Grocers' Company, to which apothecaries had previously belonged.4
The Rose Case of 1703 established that English apothecaries could not only dispense medicines but also prescribe them, effectively granting them a role as general practitioners for the poor.5 The Apothecaries Act of 1815 then required all apothecaries in England and Wales to pass an examination and serve a five-year apprenticeship, creating one of the earliest licensing requirements for any medical profession in Britain.6
By the twentieth century, the apothecary had become the pharmacist, and the profession had narrowed from preparing custom remedies to dispensing standardized, factory-produced medications. In 2023, there were more than 4.4 million pharmacists practicing worldwide, according to the International Pharmaceutical Federation.7