USD $143.00
Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru
Apothecaries, Science and Society
Series: - The Atlantic World, Volume: 34
Author:
Based on extensive archival research in Peru, Spain, and Italy, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru examines how apothecaries in Lima were trained, ran their businesses, traded medicinal products, prepared medicines, and found their place in society. In the book, Newson argues that apothecaries had the potential to be innovators in science, especially in the New World where they encountered new environments and diverse healing traditions. However, it shows that despite experimental tendencies among some apothecaries, they generally adhered to traditional humoral practices and imported materia medica from Spain rather than adopt native plants or exploit the region’s rich mineral resources. This adherence was not due to state regulation, but reflected the entrenchment of humoral beliefs in popular thought and their promotion by the Church and Inquisition.
Linda A. Newson, PhD (1971) in Geography, University College London, is Director of the Institute of Latin Americana Studies, University of London. She is author of six monographs and two edited volumes, including (with Susie Minchin) From Capture to Sale: The Portuguese Slave Trade to Spanish South America in the Early Seventeenth Century (Brill, 2009).
"Thanks to Making Medicines, scholars can now approach such issues with far greater clarity and specificity than they could have otherwise. The book will be a key point of reference for future studies not only on the Viceroyalty of Peru but in colonial Latin America." - Hugh Cagle, in: Journal of Latin American Studies 51:1 (2019): 233-235
"This rich social history promises to make Spanish colonial pharmacies both comprehensible and engaging. Students of history, science, technology, and medicine will appreciate its premodern perspective and the complex layers connecting religion, society, and medical practice. This book is not only at the forefront of histories investigating medicine and society in colonial Latin America, but it is also a model in the balance of archival work, analysis, and accessible prose." - Kathleen Kole de Peralta, in: The Americas, 76:1 (2019): 171-173
"[E]n mi opinión, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima es una contribución indispensable que nos permite profundizar sobre la relación entre el poder y el saber; entre dominio de larga distancia y poderes locales. Una contribución que nos convoca a emprender nuevos estudios comparativos entre Perú y la Nueva España que nos ayuden a revelar por qué, a pesar de que ambos territorios se rigieron por la misma cultura jurídica española, construyeron culturas médicas distintas, pero, sobre todo, reconocer que en los espacios coloniales se verificaron diversas culturas médicas que mantuvieron intercambios permanentes, aunque esta diversidad no siempre resulte obvia o visible a través de la documentación." - Angélica Morales Sarabia, in: Dynamis, 39:1 (2019): 235-266
"This rich social history promises to make Spanish colonial pharmacies both comprehensible and engaging. Students of history, science, technology, and medicine will appreciate its premodern perspective and the complex layers connecting religion, society, and medical practice. This book is not only at the forefront of histories investigating medicine and society in colonial Latin America, but it is also a model in the balance of archival work, analysis, and accessible prose." - Kathleen Kole de Peralta, in: The Americas, 76:1 (2019): 171-173
"[E]n mi opinión, Making Medicines in Early Colonial Lima es una contribución indispensable que nos permite profundizar sobre la relación entre el poder y el saber; entre dominio de larga distancia y poderes locales. Una contribución que nos convoca a emprender nuevos estudios comparativos entre Perú y la Nueva España que nos ayuden a revelar por qué, a pesar de que ambos territorios se rigieron por la misma cultura jurídica española, construyeron culturas médicas distintas, pero, sobre todo, reconocer que en los espacios coloniales se verificaron diversas culturas médicas que mantuvieron intercambios permanentes, aunque esta diversidad no siempre resulte obvia o visible a través de la documentación." - Angélica Morales Sarabia, in: Dynamis, 39:1 (2019): 235-266
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1 Medicines: Empire, Science and Society
Medicine and Empire
Practices of Medicine
Medicine and Science
Practitioners of Medicine
Prospectus
2 Learning to Make Medicines
Makers of Medicines
Education and Practical Training
Apothecaries from Spain
University Medical Education
Preparatory Schooling
Educational Opportunities for Non-Elites
On the Job Training
Examinations and Licences
Female Medical Learning
Conclusion
3 The Medicines Business
Acquiring a Botica
The Premises
Employing Pharmacy Workers
Indian Forced Labourers
Black Pharmacy Workers
Running a Pharmacy
Conclusion
4 Trading Medicines and Materia Medica
Organisation of the Transatlantic Trade
Apothecaries, Pepperers and Spicers
The Transatlantic Trade in Materia Medica
The Intercolonial Trade in Materia Medica
Acquiring Materia Medica Locally
Conclusion
5 Selecting Materia Medica
Humoralism
Scholarly Scientific Explorations
Paracelsianism
Maintaining Medical Orthodoxy
The Regulation of Pharmacies
The Impact of the Counter Reformation and Inquisition
The Circulation of Medical Texts
Conclusion
6 Making Medicines
Types of Medicines
Preparing Medicines
Pharmacy Methods and Equipment
Categories of Medicines
Using Purgatives and Emetics
Using Native Plants
A Few Experiments
Explaining the Failure to Adopt Native Botanical Materia Medica
A Medical Marketplace?
Using Minerals and Chemicals
Conclusion
7 The Social World of Apothecaries
The Status of the Medical Profession
The Middling Professional Status of the Apothecary
Criticisms of the Medical Profession
The Christian Calling of an Apothecary
Projecting Professionalism
Conclusion
8 Persistent Practices
Accounting for the Prevalence of Humoral Medicine
Accounting for the Slow Adoption of Experimental Methods
Appendix A Books Shipped from Spain by the Apothecary Juan Sánchez in 1591
Appendix B List of Materia Medica Found in Pharmacies in Spain and Lima
Appendix C Books Shipped from Spain to Doctor Melchor de Amusco in Nombre de Dios, 1584
Glossary
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
1 Medicines: Empire, Science and Society
Medicine and Empire
Practices of Medicine
Medicine and Science
Practitioners of Medicine
Prospectus
2 Learning to Make Medicines
Makers of Medicines
Education and Practical Training
Apothecaries from Spain
University Medical Education
Preparatory Schooling
Educational Opportunities for Non-Elites
On the Job Training
Examinations and Licences
Female Medical Learning
Conclusion
3 The Medicines Business
Acquiring a Botica
The Premises
Employing Pharmacy Workers
Indian Forced Labourers
Black Pharmacy Workers
Running a Pharmacy
Conclusion
4 Trading Medicines and Materia Medica
Organisation of the Transatlantic Trade
Apothecaries, Pepperers and Spicers
The Transatlantic Trade in Materia Medica
The Intercolonial Trade in Materia Medica
Acquiring Materia Medica Locally
Conclusion
5 Selecting Materia Medica
Humoralism
Scholarly Scientific Explorations
Paracelsianism
Maintaining Medical Orthodoxy
The Regulation of Pharmacies
The Impact of the Counter Reformation and Inquisition
The Circulation of Medical Texts
Conclusion
6 Making Medicines
Types of Medicines
Preparing Medicines
Pharmacy Methods and Equipment
Categories of Medicines
Using Purgatives and Emetics
Using Native Plants
A Few Experiments
Explaining the Failure to Adopt Native Botanical Materia Medica
A Medical Marketplace?
Using Minerals and Chemicals
Conclusion
7 The Social World of Apothecaries
The Status of the Medical Profession
The Middling Professional Status of the Apothecary
Criticisms of the Medical Profession
The Christian Calling of an Apothecary
Projecting Professionalism
Conclusion
8 Persistent Practices
Accounting for the Prevalence of Humoral Medicine
Accounting for the Slow Adoption of Experimental Methods
Part 2: Appendices
Appendix A Books Shipped from Spain by the Apothecary Juan Sánchez in 1591
Appendix B List of Materia Medica Found in Pharmacies in Spain and Lima
Appendix C Books Shipped from Spain to Doctor Melchor de Amusco in Nombre de Dios, 1584
Glossary
Bibliography
Anyone interested in the social history of Lima, in medicine in early colonial Spanish America, in apothecaries and the history of pharmacy, and in early modern science and transatlantic connections in general.