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Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period pp 37–64Cite as

Medical Science and Medical Teaching at the University of Salamance in the 15th Century

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Notes

  1. H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. A new edition... edited by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, 3 Vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1936) [Repr. 1969]; J. Ijsewijn and J. Paquet (eds.), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1978); H. De Riddder-Symoens (ed.), A History of the University in Europer. Vol I: Universities in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); O. Pedersen, The First Universities.’ studium Generale’ and the Origins of University Education in Europe. English transl. by R. North (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). The last work focuses on the faculties of Artes.

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  2. V. L. Bullough, Achievement, Professionalization, and the University”, in Ilsewijn and Paquet (eds.) (note 1), pp. 497–510.

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  3. See N. Siraisi, “The Faculty of Medicine”, in H. De Ridder-Symoens, (ed.) (note 1), pp. 360–387.

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  4. L. García-Ballester, L. Ferre, and E. Feliu, “Jewish Appreciation of Fourteenth-Century Scholastic Medicine”, Osiris 6:85–117 (1990).

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  5. P. U. González de la Calle and A. Huarte y Echenique, Constituciones y Bulas complementarias dadas a la Universidad de Salamanca por el Pontífice Benedicto XIII (Pedro de Luna) (Zaragoza, 1932), p. 42. Reproduced by V. Beltrán de Heredia, Bulario de la Universidad de Salamanca (1219–1549), 3 Vols. (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1966–1967), II, num. V 4444. Quoted by M. Amasuno, La Escuela de Medicina del Estudio salamantino (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1990), p. 51. Benedict XIII’s statutes for the university (1411) were published by H. Denifle, Urkunden zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Universitäten. Die päpstlichen Documente für die Universität Salamanca (Freiburg i. Br.: Herder, 1889 [Archiv für Literatur-und Kirchen-Geschichte des Mittelalters, Bd. V]).

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  6. Rashdall A. B. Emden, 3 Vols. (London: Oxford University Press, 1936) (note 1), II, pp. 64–65.

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  7. L. García-Ballester, “Medical Science in Thirteenth-Century Castile: Problems and Prospects”, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 61:183–201 (1987); G. Beaujouan, La science en Espagne au XIVe et XVe siècles (Paris: Conférence du Palais de la Découverte, 1967) [Repr. In Science médiévale d’Espagne et d’alentour (Aldershot: Ashgate-Variorum, 1992)].

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  8. García-Ballester (note 7).

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  9. E. Esperabé Arteaga, Historia de la Universidad de Salamanca, 2 vols. (Salamanca: 1914–1917), I, p. 22.

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  10. Beltrán de Heredia (note 5), I, num. 24, pp. 330–331.

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  11. It appears in the address of a document of Pope Urban V (1363), in which the bachelor of medicine Lorenzo Juan (Laurentiis Joaniis) is mentioned, it being added that “he had taught medicine for several years in the Estudio of Salamanca”. “Item Laurentio Joannis,..., baccalario in medicina, qui de eadem in studio Salamanticense per aliquos an[n]os legit”. Beltrán de Heredia, (note 5), III, num. 1367, pp. 307–308.

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  12. This was the degree obtained by Angelo de Costefort, physician to Charles II of Navarre; in 1362, the latter awarded Angelo a substantial sum of money to cover the considerable expenses involved in obtaining a master’s degree in medicine at Salamanca, a degree which he was in possession of by 1363. V. Beltrán de Heredia, Cartulario de la Universidad de Salamanca (1218–1600), 6 Vols. (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1970–1973), I, num. 59, p. 639.

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  13. Esperabé Arteaga (note 9), I, pp. 41–42.

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  14. See Amasuno (note 5), pp. 48–125.

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  15. See D. Jacquart, “La question disputé dans les facultés de médicine”, in B. C. Bazàn, J. W. Wippel, G. Fransen, and D. Jacquart (eds.), Les questions disputées et les questions quodlivétiques dans les facultés de théologie, de droit et de médecine (Turhout: Brepols, 1985), pp. 279–315.

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  16. R. Sancho de San Román, Tres escritos sobre pestilencia del Renacimiento español. Fernando Álvarez. Diego Álvarez Chanca. Licenciado Fores (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1979). The Compendio and the writings by both Diego de Torres and Gómez García de Salamanca have been edited by M. Amasuno, El ‘Compendio de medicina’ del doctor Gómez de Salamanca (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1971); Idem, Un texto médico-astrológico del siglo XV: ‘Eclipse sel sol’, del licenciado Diego de Torres (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1972). The short work by Gomez García de Salamanca, in Idem, Medicina castellanoleonesa bajomedieval (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1991), pp. 36–84 [Acta Historico-Medica Vallisoletana XXXII].

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  17. Biblioteca Nacional (henceforth BN), Madrid MS 4220, ff. 1–68. The Praxis medica is incomplete, lacking the initial part. It follows the arrangement established by Bernard of Gordon’s Lilium medicine (also known as Praxis): in the first place fevers are explained, followed by the remaining illnesses arranged “from the head to the feet”, an arrangement very familiar to medieval practitioners.

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  18. M.R. McVaugh, “Two Montpellier recipe collections”, Manuscripta 20:175–180 (1976).

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  19. G. Beaujouan, Manuscrits scientifiques médiévaux de l’Université de Salamanque et de ses ‘Colegios Mayores’ (Bordeaux: Féret & Fils, 1962), pp. 135–137.

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  20. Amasuno (note 16), p. 106, accepts this authorship with a considerable degree of caution.

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  21. On this Parisian master, see W. O. Schalick III, Add One Part Pharmacy to One Part Surgery and One Part Medicine: Jean de Saint-Amand and the Development of Medical Pharmacology in Thirteenth-Century Paris (D. Phil., Johns Hopkins University, 1997).

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  22. Jean de Saint Amand’s aim was clear: “So that students may quickly locate what they are so earnestly seeking in Galen’s books (ut scolares qui saepius in libri Galeni quaerendo... et citius inveniant)”, in O. Paderstein (ed.), Revocativum memorie, (Berlin: Prohemio, 1892), p. 10. See L. García-Ballester, “Arnau de Vilanova (c. 1240–1311) y la reforma de los estudios médicos en Montpellier (1309): El Hipócrates latino y la introducción del nuevo Galeno”, Dynamis 2:97–158 (1982), in pp. 105–107. A shorter and revised version in, Idem, “The ‘New Galen’: A Challenge to Latin Galenism in Thirteenth-Century Montpellier”, in K.-D. Fischer, D. Nickel, and P. Porter (eds.), Text and Tradition. Studies in Ancient Medicine and Its Transmission Presented to Jutta Kollesch (Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 1998), pp. 55–83.

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  23. “Nota quod res naturales sunt ille quod ad esse sanitatis sunt necessarie secundum rationem sui generis. Et ideo dicitur res sine quibus sanabile corpus esse non potest. Arnaldus in Speculo, capitulo secundo”, BN, Madrid MS 3371, f. 90va.

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  24. Real Academia de la Historia (thereafter RAH), Madrid MS 9/443. See G. Beaujouan, “Manuscripts médicaux du moyen age conservés en Espagne”, Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez 8:161–221 (1972) [Science médiévale d’Espagne et d’alentour (Aldershot: Ashgate-Variorum, 1992)].

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  25. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, f. 78v.

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  26. “El ruybarbo es tal medicina/de las que se llama por nombre benditas,/et sus propiedades son muy infinitas,/et stómago et hígado et la sangre afina;/a cólera et phlegma es purga benigna/sacándolas mucho con seguridad”. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, f. 104.

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  27. D. Jacquart, La médecine médiévale dans le cadre parisien: XIVe-Xve siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1998), p. 498.

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  28. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, ff. 58v–101.

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  29. See T. Joutsivuo, Scholastic Tradition and Humanist Innovation. The Concept of Neutrum in Renaissance Medicine (Helsinki: Bookstore Tiedekirja, 1999); T. Pesenti, “The Teaching of the Tegni in Italian Universities in the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century”, Dynamis 20:159–208 (2000).

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  30. The date suggests that this must have been Fernán Álvarez Abarca (c.1456–1526), also known as “the third physician to the Queen” and the holder of the Prime chair at the Faculty of Medicine from 1497/1498 onward. He was a brother of Gabriel Álvarez Abarca (d.c. 1496/1497), who was also a holder of the Prime chair at the Faculty of Medicine, known as “the second physician to the Queen”, whom he was to succeed in the chair, and son of Fernán Álvarez Malla (d. in 1469), “the first physician to the Queen”, and likewise Prime chairholder at the Faculty of Medicine. See Amasuno (note 5), p. 99 onward. Amasuno does not consider the subject we deal with in this article.

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  31. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, ff. 63–64v.

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  32. “In medicinis necesse est nobis scire graduare”, Ibid. f. 65.

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  33. Ibid., ff. 65–66v.

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  34. “Primum est graduare humanam generationem nam hoc multum iuvat in conservatione et curatione. Secundum est graduare egritudines.... Tertium est graduare medicinas complexionales. Quartum graduare medicinas purgativas. Quintum graduare medicinas compositas”, Ibid. f. 65.

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  35. See the excellent Introduction by M. R. McVaugh to his edition of Arnald of Vilanova’s Aphorismi de gradibus, in Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia (henceforth AVOMO), 2nd ed. (Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona, 1992), II, pp. 1–136.

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  36. See J.-M. Dureau-Lapeyssonnie, “L’oeuvre d’Antoine Ricart, médecin catalan du XVe siècle”, in G. Beaujouan et al., Médecine humaine et vétérinaire à la fin du moyen age (Genève-Paris: Droz, 1966), pp. 171–364.

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  37. See L. García-Ballester, La medicina a la València medieval. Medicina i societat en un pais medieval mediterrani (València: Institució Valenciana d’Estudis i Investigació, 1988), p. 93.

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  38. “Nota consilium ipsius doctoris (i.e., doctoris Regine) et est quod in medicina composita ab aliquis ne tollas aliquam medicinarum ipsas componentium sicut sunt quidam medicorum...”, RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, f. 65v.

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  39. See G. Beaujouan, Manuscrits scientifiques médiévaux de l’Université de Salamanque et de ses ‘Colegios Mayores’ (Bordeaux: Féret & Fils, 1962), pp. 110–111. Part of them were edited and commented on by M. R. McVaugh, “The Experimenta of Arnald of Villanova”, Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1:107–118 (1971), in p. 107.

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  40. J. A. Paniagua, El doctor Chanca y su obra médica (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, 1977).

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  41. Hardly anything is known of the lives of these two physicians of the Salamanca university school. As regards Fernando del Marmol we have no information whatsoever, with the exception of his collaboration with Núñez de la Hierba. As for the latter, he is known to have been born in Salamanca in about 1460, and to have studied Arts and Medicine in that city’s university, obtaining the maximum academic degree (Magister) in both disciplines in 1487. He must have been connected with the Faculty of Arts to judge by the edition of Pomponius Mela’s Cosmographia that he prepared (Salamanca: 1498). He does not seem to have held a chair at the Faculty of Medicine. He disappears without trace from Salamanca academic circles in June 1504. For the few known biographical details and his relationship with natural philosophy, see C. FlÓrez Miguel, P. García Castillo, and R. Albares, La ciencia de la tierra. Cosmografia y cosmógrafos salmantinos del Renacimiento (Salamanca: Cajade Ahorros y Monte de Piedad, 1990), pp. 443 onward.

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  42. Alkindus de gradibus medicinarum compositarum. Parabole magistri Arnaldi de Villanova. Aphorismi de graduatione medicinarum compositarum cum commento eiusdem (Salamanca: Juan de Porras, 1501); J. A. Paniagua drew attention to this edition. See J. A. Paniagua, “Las ediciones renacentistas de Medicationis parabole”, in Medicina e Historia (Madrid: Universidad Complutense, 1980), pp. 27–43.

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  43. “Erant enim littere tui exemplaris apud nos unici, quod mihi transcribendum tradidisti, ita caduce, ut quod sibi vellent, vix intelligere possem”, Alkindus de gradibus medicinarum (note 34), f. 32v (Letter of the bachelor Fernando del Marmol to Doctor de la Hierba).

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  44. “Quod, ni tua suffultus essem ope, ad finem minime perduxissem... Meo labore ergo et industria effectum est ut omnibus hec opera utilissima imprimerentur. Sed tua eminentissima doctrina tantum valuit, ut sine mendis in manus omnium venirent, et que pannosa situque obsita hactenus latebant, castigatissima undecumque promulgarentur”, Ibid. (note 34), f. 32v.

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  45. Introduction by McVaugh to his edition of Arnold of Vilanova’s Aphorismi de gradibus (note 34), pp. 89 onward.

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  46. “Qualitates enim erbarum aliarumque rerum multis verbis multi alii ostendere. Puta hec calida, hec frigida est. Est complurime mixte quam vim habeant, cui gradui egritudinis prosint, cui moceant, quis melius, quis clarius, et copiosus distincte nostro Alchindo docuit”. Franciscus Nunnez de la Hierba. Prologus, Alchindus de gradibus medicinarum compositarum (note 34), f. 1v.

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  47. “Francisci Nunnez de la Hierba, in medicina doctoris, cathedram vespertinam medicine Academia salmanticensi as presens regentis, ad iuvenes medicine studiosos Prologus./Diu multumque cogitabam studiosa iuventus quid nam esset in causa cum passim et veterum et novorum auctorum omnimodo doctrine varia volummina imprimerentur, in medicina scientia relinquarum facile principe aut nihil, aut parva quedam de gradibus medicinarum compositarum scriberentur. Quod sane operis difficultati, ac inmenso labori imputavi existimans non mediocri acumine ingenii ad huius rei cognitionem opus esse. Hoc ferendum est, pauci fortassis reperiuntur, quorum ingenium huic materie parsit. Sed quis non irascatur, hec eadem (quantulacumque sint) de hac re elucubrata delitescere, et vix ad nos pervenire. Quis non succenseat occultantibus, quis non laudet promulgantes, quod locupletent scientias./Ego autem viri doctissimi mihi persuasi in pari laudis meritorum fastigio, et qui edunt condita, et a aliis scripta scrutantur... /Qua de causa vobis gratificari cupiens; vestris commodis inservire anhelans, et ne quid a maioribus nostris servatum ad nos pervenit id oscitantes dissutis undique malis amittere videremur, et negligentia tanto amulumento obstaret, usuique communi officeret, effeci, ut antiquissimus Alchindus vir quiedemmagne auctoritatis iterum revivisceret.... /Non me potui continere (fateor) quin quibusvis laboribus et vigiliis comptentis hunc doctissimum virum in lucem ederem. Callebam enim ex eo uberrimam doctrinam elici posse, et hunc penitus enucleatum maximo adiumento vobis fore, et ad vestrum desiderium libentius expexplendum, et ad sanctissimum propositum facilius obtinendum... /Plura in hanc sententiam dicerem iuvenes eruditissimi, nisi vobis ist hec nota putarem. Illud tamen unum non pretermittam practicam, que non ignobilis scientie medicine pars habetur, omnino imperfectam, que non ignobilis scientie medicine pars habetur, omnino imperfectam, ac veluti mancam sine Alchindus esse. Quod nec intelligi, nec percipi sine huius prestantissimi viri doctrina possint, ut eorum sit inditium”. Nuñez de la Hierba. Prologus. Alchindus de gradibus medicinarum compositarum (nore 34), f. 1v.

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  48. On this renewed scientific movement of Galenism, see the articles by García-Ballester Arnau de Vilanova (c. 1240–1311) y la reforma de los estudios médicos en Montpellier (1309): El Hipócrates latino y la introducción del nuevo Galeno”, Dynamis 2:97–158 (1982) (note 22).

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  49. Beaujouan (note 24 s.v.) suggests Juan de la Parra, but he would seem to have been a somewhat later scholar, more closely related to courtly circles than academic ones. See the extensive work on this individual by N. Alonso Cortés, “Dos médicos de los Reyes Católicos”, Hispania 11:607–657 (1951).

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  50. See J. Arrizabalaga, J. Henderson, and R. French, The Great Pox. The French Disease in Renaissance Europe (New Haven-London: Yale University Press, 1999).

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  51. BN, Madrid MS 4220. The Praxis medica is only incompletely preserved (ff. 1–68). Fernando Fernández de Sepúlveda (b.c. 1485) was trained as a physician in both Salamanca and Valencia, where he received particular instruction in pharmacy at the recently created unified hospital (1512). On his return to Salamanca, prior to 1520, he exercised both professions and maintained a close relationship with university medical circles. He wrote a practical treatise on medicine and pharmacy (Manipulus medicinarum, note 49), with a large number of autobiographical details. A collection of recipes (Recetario), attributed to him, including advice for young physicians who are starting to undertake medical practice, in addition to an outline of an antidotarium (ff. 69–136v; 139–162v), can be found in MS 4220; in particular, the author emphasized that those who were embarking on a medical career should possess a solid background in pharmacy. The contents of this manuscript deserve further examination. See, L. García Ballester, “La çiençia y el ofiçio de la boticaría”, in Historia de la Ciencia y de la Técnica en la Corona de Castilla, Vol. I (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 2002) pp. 865–915.

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  52. “Item. Que los boticarios sean examinados por los fysicos y boticarios que oviere en los lugares donde vivieren, como se haze en Valencia y Çaragoça y otros lugares bien regidos”, Archivo General de Simancas (thereafter AGS), Diversos de Castilla, leg. 1, doc. 55 (c.1498). Reproduced by I. de la Villa, Los médicos y la medicina en la época de los Reyes Católicos. Comentarios a unas Ordenanzas del siglo XV reproducidas del Archivo de Simancas (Valladolid: Talleres Tipográficos Cuesta, 1939), p. 45.

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  53. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, ff. 69–78v (Tractatus de saphati).

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  54. See J. Arrizabalaga, “El ‘Consilium de modorrilla’ (Roma y Salamanca, 1505): una aportación nosográfica de Gaspar Torrella”, Dynamis 5–6:59–94 (1985–1986).

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  55. BN, Madrid MS 12366, ff. 48–157va.

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  56. See N. G. Siraisi, Avicenna in Renaissance Italy. The ‘Canon’ and Medical Teaching in Italian Universities after 1500 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 108.

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  57. BN, Madrid MS 12366, f. 131vb.

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  58. “Ego Petrus Pugo in medicina bachallarius incepi scribere istud librum in [illegible] dum ibi practicabam in estate et primo anno mee practice.12. die mensis junij anno a nativitate 1457 et finivi eum secunda die augusti eiusdem annij”, ibid., f. 131vb.

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  59. RAH, Madrid MS 9/443, ff. 60–62v.

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  60. An author frequently referred to by Fernández de Sepúlveda in his Manipulus medicinarum (Salamanca, 1523) Dos médicos de los Reyes Católicos”, Hispania 11:607–657 (1951) (note 49), and by Bernardino de Laredo in his work Modus faciendi (Seville, 1527).

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  61. On this physician, see L. E. Demaitre, Doctor Bernard de Gordon: Professor and Practitioner (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980).

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  62. See the biography of this Castilian physician by M. Amasuno, Alfonso Chirino, un médico de monarcas castellanos (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1993).

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  63. See L. García-Ballester and E. Sánchez Salor, Introduction to Arnaldi de Villanova Commentum supra tractatum Galieni de malicia complexionis diverse cum textu Galieni (Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona, 1985), p. 142 [AV OMO V, XV].

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  64. See the explicit of the Vatican manuscript Vat. pal. lat. 1098: “Scriptum per me Johannem Schureissen in famosissimo studio Padue tunc temporis illic medicine scolaris vel studens anno domini 1464”. L. Schuba, Die medizinischen Handschriften der Codices Palatini Latini in der Vatikanischen Bibliothek (Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1981).

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  65. His Commentarius super Canonem Avicenne concentrating on the part of book IV dealing with fevers. See D. Jacquart, Supplément to E. Wickersheimer, Dictionnaire biographique desmédecins en France au moyen age (Genève: Droz, 1979), pp. 85–86. Suppl., pp. 85–86.

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  66. See Jacquart (note 26).

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  67. As an example we can refer to his commentaries and quaestiones on mineral waters and their therapeutic effects. See L. García-Ballester, “Sobre el origen de los tratados de baños (de balneis) como género literario en la medicina medieval. A propósito del poema médico Nomina et virtutes balneorum Puteoli et Baiarum de Pedro de Éboli (c.1160–1220) y la Tabula super balneis Puteoli, atribuida a Arnau de Vilanova (m. 1311), contenidos en el MS 860 de la Biblioteca Universitaria de Valencia”, Cronos 1:7–50 (1998).

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  68. Jacquart (note 26), pp. 204–227.

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  69. See the above-mentioned book by Siraisi (note 56), p. 7.

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  70. See Arrizabalaga et al. (note 50), and Arrizabalaga (note 54).

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  71. It should be remembered that Juan Gil (d.c. 1320), a Franciscan from Zamora (Kingdom of Castile), made use of it in his encyclopedia (Historia naturalis) and in his treatise Contra venena et animalia venenosa (“On poisonous animals”). This scientific encyclopedia has been edited by A. Domínguez and L. García-Ballester, Johannis Aegidii Zamorensis Historia naturalis. Introducción, edición crítica, traducción castellana e índices, 3 Vols. (Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, 1994). The treatise Contra venena was edited by M. de Castro y Castro, “Johannes Aegidii Zamorensis OFM. ‘Contra venena et animalia venenosa’”, Archivos Ibero-Americanos 36:3–116 (1976).

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  72. G. Beaujouan, “La bibliothèque et l’ecole médicale du Monastère de Guadalupe a l’aube de la Renaissance”, in G. Beaujouan et al. (note 35), pp. 367–468.

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  73. See the above-mentioned book by Siraisi (note 56).

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  74. “huius (prescriptions) vero notitiam adimplere nequeunt, si vestigia aliqua medicine alfacere non urgeantur”, Sumario de la medicina (1498). Proemium, facsimil edition by L. S. Granjel et al. (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1998), p. 46. Both translation and punctuation are mine.

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  75. A. Chirino, in A. González Palencia and L. Contreras Pozas (eds.) Menor daño de la medicina. Espejo de medicina por Alonso Chirino, con un estudio preliminar acerca del autor (Madrid: Real Academia de Medicina, 1945) [Biblioteca clásica de la medicina española, XIV]; Idem, Menor daño de la medicina de Alonso de Chirino. Edición crítica y glosario por M. T. Herrera (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1973) [Acta Salmanticensia, Filosofía y Letras 75].

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  76. See note 74 above.

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  77. Among the first works to enter the library of the College of San Bartolomé, founded in 1413–1418 by Diego de Anaya, former bishop of Salamanca (1392) and Archbishop of Seville (1417–1437), were Aristotle’s libri naturales in William of Moerbecke’s Latin translation from the Greek (corpus recentius). These were donated by Diego de Anaya himself in the early 1430s; he must have acquired them through the scriptoria or dealers in manuscripts in Paris or Italy. See Beaujouan (note 19), pp. 17–22.

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  78. “Item mandaron comprar qualesquier libros que fuesen menester para la libreria del dicho estudio, asy testos como lecturas, de los dineros de la Universidad... e fazer comprar los libros que fuesen para ella menester e verlos e cognoscerlos”, Archivo de la Universidad, Salamanca, reg. 1, f. 126. See Beaujouan (note 19), p. 2.

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  79. Beaujouan (note 19), p. 2.

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  80. See L. García-Ballester, “El papel de las instituciones de consumo y difusión de ciencia médica en la Castilla del siglo XIII: el monasterio, la catedral y la universidad”, Dynamis 4:33–63 (1984); R. Gonzálvez Ruiz, Hombres y libros de Toledo, 1086–1300 (Madrid: Fundación Ramón Areces, 1997) [Monumenta Ecclesiae Toletanae Historica. Series V: Studia I].

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  83. BN, Madrid MS 1795, f. 26vb.

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  84. All these works were edited by L. G. A. Getino, Vida y obra de Fray Lope de Barrientos, Vol. I (Salamanca: 1927) [Anales Salmantinos]. See also A. Martínez Casado, Lope de Barrientos un intelectual de la corte de Juan II (Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban, 1994), a work with a traditional historiographical approach. The Tractado de la divinança has been re-edited together with a full introduction by P. Cuenca Muñoz, El ‘Tractado de la divinançca’ de Lope de Barrientos. La magia medieval en la visión de un obispo de Cuenca (Cuenca: Ayuntamiento de Cuenca, 1994). Lope de Barrientos’ work continued the intellectual tradition of the members of the mendicant orders in the first half of the 15th century, both in Europe as a whole and in Castile (in this case through the Dominicans), characterized by their attention to natural questions. This tradition had been started in Castile by Juan Fernández (fl. 1225) in the then recently founded Dominican house of Bonaval in Santiago de Compostela, by studying the contents of Aristotle’s works on natural philosophy and Arab commentaries on them, and by expressing his interest in mathematical questions (Euclid) and astronomy and astrology (al-Farghani’s Elementa astronomica); this was continued by the group that translated various medical works from Arabic into Latin in the Dominican Studium in Murcia in the 1270s. See L. García-Ballester, “Nature and Science in Thirteenth-Century Castile. The origins of a Tradition: The Franciscan and Dominican Studia”, in L. García-Ballester (ed.), Medicine in a Multicultural Society: Christian, Jewish and Muslim practitioners in the Spanish Kingdoms, 1222–1610 (Aldershot: Ashgate-Variorum, 2001, II); Idem, García-Ballester (note 7).

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  85. It should be remembered that Diego de Anaya, who was particularly concerned about higher education and in possession of a rich library with a high proportion of scientific works, was tutor to Enrique III. See Beaujouan (note 19). Juan III appointed Lope de Barrientos as tutor to the infante Enrique, the future Enrique IV (1454–1474).

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  86. He was the owner of the manuscript with the only Spanish translation of Aristotle’s De animalibus, see M. Schiff, La Bibliothèque du Marquis de Santillane (Paris: Librairie Émile Bouillon, 1905), pp. 34–36.

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  87. J. H. Elsdom, The Library of the Counts of Benavente (Ann Arbor, 1962), pp. 23–27.

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  89. See A. R. D. Pagden, “The Diffusion of Aristotle’s Moral Philosophy in Spain, ca. 1400–ca. 1600”, Traditior, 31:287–313 (1975). King Enrique III (d. 1406), in his last illness, called upon the services of the Italian physician Pietro da Tossignano (d. 1407), a prestigious professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Bolonia. See Amasuno (note 62), pp. 68–71.

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  90. M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher (Berlin: 1893) (reimpr. Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956), p. 210, n. 26; the reader will find interesting remarks about Meyr Alguades in Y. Baer, History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2 Vols. (Philadelphia, 1978). I employ the terms “rationalist” (and its contrary “antirationalist”) for the sake of convenience, although they are overly simplistic. See I. Twersky, “Rabbi Abraham Ben David of Posquières: His Attitude to and Acquaintance with Secular Learning”, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 26:161–192 (1957), on pp. 164, 184–185; and Ch. Mopsik, Lettre sur la sainteté: Le secret de la rélation entre l’homme et la femme dans la Cabale (Lagrasse: Editions Verdier, 1985), pp. 32–34, 48–49.

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  91. See the important paper by L. V. Berman, “The Latin-into-Hebrew Translation of the Nichomachean Ethics”, in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 7:147–169 (1988) (Shlomo Pines Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday) (in Hebrew). Berman’s paper includes the Hebrew edition of Alguades’ Prologue. I am very grateful to Eduard Feliu (Barcelona), who gave me access to this fascinating Prologue.

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  92. See the above-mentioned article by Berman (note 91). On Benveniste ibn Lavi and his important role in the Aragonese Jewish community, see Baer (note 90).

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  93. García-Ballester et al. (note 4), and the literature cited therein.

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  94. See García-Ballester (note 84).

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  95. BN, Madrid MS 10198, ff. 1–93. As mentioned above this manuscript belongs to library of the Marquis of Santillana (see note 86) and is still unedited. J. Martínez Gáazquez (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and myself are at present engaged on this task.

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  96. Edited by A. Domínguez and L. García Ballester (note 71).

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  97. “Este don Enrrique fue muy grant sabio en todas çiençias, en espeçial en la Theología e Nigromançia, e aun fue grant alquimista. Y con todo esto vino en tan grant menester, al tiempo que fallesçió non se falló en su cámara con qué le pudiesen enterrar. Y fue cosa de Nuestro Señor, porque las gentes conoscan quíanto aprovechan las semejantes çiençias”. (This Don Enrique was very knowledgeable about all the sciences, especially Theology and Necromancy, and he was also a great alchemist. And in spite of this, he was so needy that when he died there was not enough to be found in his chamber for him to be buried.) J. De Mata Carriazo (ed.), Refundición de la Crónica del Halconero por el obispo don Lope de Barrientos (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1946), p. 170.

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  98. “Y después que él fallesció, el Rey mandó traer a su cámara todos los libros que este don Enrrique tenía en Yniesta, e mandó a fray Lope de Barrientos, maestro del Prínçipe, que catase si avía algunos dellos de çiençia defendida. E el maestro católos, e falló bien çinquenta volú[me]nes de libros de malas artes. E dio por consejo al Rey que los mandase quemar. El Rey dio cargo dello al dicho maestro, e él púsolo luego en esecuçión, e todos ellos fueron quemados”. (And after he died, the king ordered that all the books that this don Enrique had in Iniesta should be brought to his chamber, and he ordered Brother Lope de Barrientos, tutor to the prince, to determine whether any of them were of the forbidden sciences. And the master examined them and found at least 50 volumes of books of the evil arts. And he advised the King that he should order them to be burnt. The King ordered this master to do so, and he thus carried it out, and they were all burnt.) See J. De Mata Carriazo, (ed.), Refundición (note 95), p. 171.

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  100. I refer to the important book by J. Gutiérrez de Toledo (fl. 1491–1515), De computatione dierum creticorum (Toledo: Antonio Téllez, 1495). See my forthcoming book, La medicina en una sociedad multicultural. Las ciencias de la salud en la Corona de Castilla, siglos XIII a XVI (Barcelona: Ediciones Península, 2001).

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  101. Abubetri Rhazae Liber ad regem Mansorem (Basel: in officina Henrichi Petri, 1544), pp. 509–517 (Repr. Brussels: 1973).

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  102. For PaoloBagellardo and his work on pediatrics, see K. Sudhoff, Erstlingeder pädiatrischen Literatur (Leipzig: 1925); A. Simili, “I trattati di pediatria di paolo Bagellardo da Fiume, di Iaccopo Tronconi, di Leonello de Vittori da Faenza”, Episteme 8:375–397 (1974); A. Peiper, Quellen zur Geschichte der Kinderheilkunde (Bern-Stuttgart: Verlag Hans Huber, 1966), pp. 45–47.

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  104. Beaujouan (note 72), pp. 387, 398.9, 430–434; Amasuno (note 5), pp. 60–61, 147.

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  105. The following letter sent to the academic authorities of Salamanca University by both Queen Isabella of Castile and by King Ferdinand of Aragon is quite significant. In it the Catholic Monarchs order the academic authorities not to apply academic discipline to professor Diego deTorres, who was frequently absentee from his post: “El Rey e la Reina. Rector a maestrescuela e consiliarios e doctores de la Universidad del Estudio de Salamanca. Nos hobimos enviado mandar al licenciado de Torres [Diego] que fuese a curar a la condesa de tendilla, que estaba mal dispuesta de su persona, el cual asimismo habemos agora enviado mandar que tenga cargo de curar de la salud de la condesa de Cifuentes, que nos dizen que está mal. Por ende nos vos mandamos e encargamos que en tanto que el dicho licenciado estoviese curando de la dicha condesa de Cifuentes, no entendais de fazer mudanza alguna en la cátedra que el dicho licenciado tiene en ese Estudio, porque estando las dichas condesas en buena disposición de salud, luego se irá el dicho licenciado a residir en su cátedra. De Madrid a 28 de septiembre de 94 años” (AGS. Libros de Cámara, lib. primero, f. 146). Reproduced by Beltrán de Heredia (note 11), II, num. 216, p. 149. Another similar case was that of Juan Fernández, Prime professor at the Faculty of Medicine, who was in the service of the young Juan II and the regent queen Catalina of Lancaster. The royal house ordered the academic authorities not to apply the Constitutions of the Salamanca Studium and deprive the professor of his chair, despite his absence of more than 6 months, as he had been serving the royal household. See Beltran de Heredia (note 5), II, num. 508, pp. 75–76. See also Amasuno (note 5), pp. 64–65. These two examples pose an interesting question as regards the science-power relationship in the Kingdom of Castile, an almost unstudied subject in Spain for the period in question, although this is not the moment to do so.

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  106. “Cum mecum, celeberrime doctor, superioribus diebus colloquium haberes indignabundus de medicorum [in]curie detestando silentio, ocioque vituperando in re litteraria, nam ubi tot tantique sapientie fontes scaturire possent atque multiformis doctrina florescere, ibi disciplinas marcidas et arescentes conspexeris, et intellectus abmutescentes, et non irriguos, peritissimorum hominum desidia, defleres, quia rerum mechanicarum contentiones et iurgia dumtaxat, aurumque perpetrandum in cura esset”. F. López de Villalobos, Congressiones: vel duodecim principiorum liber nuper editus (Salamanca: ex expensis v. Viri Laurentii de Liom de deis, 1514). Dedication letter.

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  1. Luis García Ballester
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  1. California Institute of Technology, USA

    Mordechai Feingold

  2. University of Valencia — CSIC, Spain

    Victor Navarro-Brotons

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Ballester, L.G. (2006). Medical Science and Medical Teaching at the University of Salamance in the 15th Century. In: Feingold, M., Navarro-Brotons, V. (eds) Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period. Archimedes, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3975-1_4

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