[Forerunners and development of medical licensure in Dalmatia: from individual initiatives to founding medical education in Split].

: Initiating licensure and medical education in Croatia was not only schooling itself, but struggle for national identity and institution of an academic setting, which, by itself, is paramount for cultural development anywhere. Throughout history, this struggle mostly ended with administrative discouragement and opposition to all such efforts of higher medical education by contemporary authorities. The paper elaborates on the first initiatives in this direction focused on the establishment of a degree of medical education in Dalmatia. Doctor Jakov Mirkovic (1748(?)-1824) was the first to become instrumental in the area. The aims, outlines and academic basis of those first initiatives were presented in a publication of his, leading eventually to the establishment of Split School of Medicine, University of Split, finally realized in 1997.