ACTIVIDADES

Monastery of San Jerónimo de Yuste. From July 23^th to July 25^th, 2025

The aim of the course is to analyse and reflect on health and illness in the 16^th century. One cannot properly understand the history of a people without taking into account epidemics and other ailments with serious collective repercussions; the various forms of medicine based on science, empiricism or magical-religious beliefs; ideas about the human body; diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive practices; care for the poor and the sick across the different social strata; the nutritional reality of society; as well as the organisation of public health, the necessary training of those practising the profession, and —throughout all of this— the role played by royal power in the 16^th century in both Europe and the Americas. It is also important to remember that the American continent provided not only economic resources, but also scientific, medical and nutritional contributions to Renaissance Europe.

Subject of the course:

– “The American world and the globalisation of taste: A fruitful exchange of flavours”
– “The practice of medicine and its textual expression in the Spanish Renaissance”
– “Humanism and medicine: The figure of Andrés Laguna in the Spanish Renaissance”
– “The discovery of America and the renewal of the therapeutic arsenal in Renaissance Europe”
– “Eating and drinking to maintain health: Diet in the time of the emperor”
– “Medicine and health in artistic images from printed books”
– “The humanist doctors from Extremadura, Luis de Toro and Sorapán de Rieros: From infectious diseases to medicine in proverbs”