The vocation of our ancestors

This book will introduce you to how our ancestors made a living for themselves and their families in the past. Some used crafts, others dedicated themselves to transport, medicine, hospitality, writing, illustrating, and the printing of newspapers and books, or various ways of entertaining audiences. You will also read about lesser-known interesting facts that may surprise you, and you will also discover how hardworking, thoughtful, and inventive people were in the past.

You will find out, for example:
• what the difference was between tinkers and wire workers,
• that Maria Theresa was already promoting vaccination in the 18th century,
• why the first X-ray machine in our country was located in a hotel,
• that apothecaries also sold ear straighteners, cat fat, and pig teeth,
• why market traders sometimes bit certain coins,
• what ballad-sellers and baking grannies sold,
• what executioners secretly traded in,
• why miners used to carry birds or rodents in cages into the mines,
• what potato theatres were,
• how ventriloquists and 'reiteraci' (mounted performers) worked,
• why fairground singers often had a little dog with them.