Medical Cultures of the Early Modern Spanish Empire by John Slater, Maria Luz Lopez-Terrada, and Jose Pardo Tomas documents the cultural clashes within the Spanish empire and how they changed the developments of medicine over time in a variety of way. “In short, medical cultures provided demographic, analytical, and even geographic tools that constituted a particular kind of map of knowledge and practice, upon which were plotted the local utilities of pharmacological discoveries; cures for social unrest or decline; spaces for political and institutional struggle; and evolving understandings of monstrousness and normativity,” (Page 3). This book discusses how medicine played a crucial role in Spanish imperialism, as much as the spread of religion, politics, and culture. The authors also argue that these things are intertwined within each other.
John Slater is a professor at the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. He has had publications in the American Historical Review and has had chapters published in such books as Science On Stage in Early Modern Spain https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/jslater/. Maria Luz Lopez-Terrada is the Research Director at the Spanish National Research Council and the Institute for the Management and Innovation of Knowledge. She has done research in the history of science and has published work on the history of medicine as recently as 2021 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria-Lopez-Terrada. Jose Pardo Tomas is a professor at the Universitat de Valencia.. He has published in journals such as the Journal of the History of Collections https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article-abstract/32/2/225/5290466.
Chapter 1 tells the stories of people like Augustin de Albarado and his ill health and his efforts to combat it. He took a hallucinogenic herb known as ololiuhqui. Following this, he was tried for the use of hallucinogenic substances as part of witchcraft. This chapter argues that the collision of the Spanish conquerors and the Native New Spaniards created new cultural norms that can be represented in the case study listed previously, as well as many others.
Chapter 2 talks about the stories of different medical practices’ communications. The author takes a look at questionnaires delivered to the local population of New Spain and analyzes the answers given. Also examined are the conversations between doctors amongst themselves, as well as lay people. These discussions surrounding illness and death revealed the populations’ cultural views surrounding things such as marriage and drunkenness.
Chapter 3 uses symbolic images and relates them to the different studies of medicine. It starts out with the symbol of the dragon and it continues throughout the chapter. It also discusses the inclusion of the Dialogo del Hierro and how it establishes alchemy as a key context to read publications in the Historia Medicinal.
Chapter 4 specifically looks at mailing correspondence between different individuals regarding family, religion, and expertise. The letters discuss different subjects such as food, illness, travel, and the scarcity of physicians. This author argues that the medical culture within New Spain was a result of complex processes brought about by different negotiations.
Chapter 5 deals with two previously unexamined documents related to someone who spread a genetic disease through the Canary Islands in the 16th century and it deals with the implications of these documents. It dives into the cultural representation of hairy peoples through mythology and popular depiction. The author contends that these two documents paint a sharper picture if one considers them within the context of broader anthropological literature.
Chapter 6 takes the correspondence between two individuals, Juan Paez de Castro and Jeronimo Zurita to show the concern that Spain had for Italy’s changing cultural and political-religious chages and the ways this influenced intellectual life in the Iberian Peninsula.
Chapter 7 deals with medical practitioners such as midwives and birth attendants and their symbolic relationship to the Baroque decline. It focuses on Baroque writers and their depictions of childbirth, such as their focus on creation and creator rather than the actual action of giving birth.
Chapter 8 has to do with the portrayal of illness in drama on stage. Some of these illnesses include memory loss and French Pox. It not only covers the knowledge of these illnesses, but it also depicts people’s general reactions to these illnesses. The author argues that the depiction of illnesses does seem to correspond with that of Galenic medicine.
Chapter 9 covers astrological medicine and its relationship with theater. The author seems to think that the depiction of astrological medicine in plays as an alternative mode of medical practice made it perceived in real life that it was more controversial and it also made the practice more available to theological polemics about astrology.
Chapter 10 talks about chymical medicine and its relationship and interactions related to political power, religion, and drama. The author argues that “the language of chymestry had a theatrical dimension that resonated with contemporaneous theology” (Page 215) that allowed priests and friars a much more involved role in the medical process.
The authors use a variety of sources, including primary documents and historiographical monographs related to the subject. One author explains some of the problems with their sources as they used inquisitional reports. These are not always reliable since they are used at a time of great social coercion. This creates a sense of untrustworthiness. The authors’ honesty about their methods is appreciated for the reader. Another author describes their particular use of letters and correspondence as a way of revealing the medical cultures. I believe all of these approaches have merits and downfalls, and a good amount of time is taken in this book to discuss them.
The authors are successful in their pursuit of highlighting how medical practices interacted and influenced cultural dynamics. Whether it is with hairy men and their depictions in mythology or letter correspondence between two practitioners and development of intellectual culture in Italy, the authors are able to draw, more or less, straight lines between the these two aspects of life. However, the book is a bit scattered. The subjects and scopes of each chapter is quite different. This, perhaps, is due to their being multiple authors with different areas of focus and expertise. This could also be seen as appropriate considering they are attempting to depict culture on a transatlantic scale. A seriously bold feat.
Overall, Medical Cultures of the Early Modern Spanish Empire is an interesting read for those who are interested in the history of science, methodology, and cultural history. It does not come across as a popular history and its eclectic yet niche subject matter might find keeping lay readers’ attention difficult. Although suggesting just one chapter to someone interested in a particular topic may not be out of the question.
