VISITING THE VIRTUOSO IN EARLY MODERN SPAIN: THE CASE OF JUAN DE ESPINA

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Notes

1. See, for example, the revisionist line offered in studies such as those by García Tapia; Navarro Brotons and Eamon; Slater and Prieto. Vicente Maroto and Esteban Piñero have significantly titled one of their recent articles “La Ciencia: interés de un monarca, indiferencia de un pueblo” (493) in Aspectos de la ciencia aplicada en la España del Siglo de Oro (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 2006).

2. On the fascination in the European context with some of these instruments, see, for instance, Mayr 3–138.

3. For the present purposes, I borrow this term in a very broad sense. There is a vast literature, as Gaukroger reminds us, “on whether there ever was the Scientific Revolution” (3, n6), or rather “a diverse array of cultural practices aimed at understanding, explaining, and controlling the natural world, each with different characteristics and each experiencing different modes of change” (Shapin 3–4).

4. See, for example, Skal; Haynes.

5. The complete citation, which comes from his masterpiece Discurso de todos los diablos o infierno emendado , reads, “Los tabacanos, como luteranos, si le toman en humo, haciendo noviciado para el infierno; si en polvo, para el romadizo.”

6. For a recent reassessment of this phenomenon, see García Santo-Tomás, Espacio urbano ; Norton.

7. Quevedo, for example, includes a scene in El Buscón where its protagonist Pablos meets an arbitrista who proposes to enable a Spanish attack on the Dutch city of Ostend by using sponges to suck up the water and thus lower the sea level (167).

8. Quevedo begins by praising Don Juan's parents; his father, Diego, worked for Philip II as an accountant. He speaks of his “condición recatada siempre al trato vulgar, pero no desapacible” (219). Juan plays music, reaching unrivaled heights, “tocando prodigios,” and excels at painting as well. In his collection, Quevedo tells us, he “introdujo por la mayor gala la órden y armonía” (219); and he indicates that don Juan asked his guests what they did for a living or liked, and according to their tastes he would show them one thing or other. “Yo no oí jamás de don Juan queja ni demanda, ni inadvertencia, ni descortesía, ni vicio; ni le he conocido enemigo. … Aborreció con singularidad y virtud robusta la pompa … anduvo solo entre la gente,” says Quevedo. He also indicates that don Juan “juntó con gran fatiga todos los instrumentos de la muerte de don Rodrigo Calderón.”

9. On the figure of Ayanz, see García Tapia, Un inventor navarro ; on Turriano, see Frago García and García-Diego; García Tapia, Técnica y poder en Castilla , 265–92; and Aracil 79–90, 312–5.

10. For the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of these documents, see García Tapia, “Los codices”; Helmstutler di Dio; Sánchez Cantón; Reti. The first one is devoted to mechanics and statics; the second one to geometry and fortification.

11. On the issue of collecting, see Morán Turina; Morán Turina and Checa Cremades; and Pimentel and Marcaida, who write, “among the cast of actors who contributed to the development of modern scientific practices—a cast traditionally dominated by natural philosophers, mathematicians, medical practitioners, botanists, and apothecaries—a place must be found for patrons of the arts, artists, collectors, merchants, and dealers” (114).

12. Bouza Álvarez reminds us of a similar effect produced by the Duchess of Alba's collection on Santa Teresa: “A la salida, recuperada del espanto inicial que le había causado la visita, confiesa la santa que no conseguía recordar, en particular, la hechura de ningún objeto, pero sí la sensación que le había producido el conjunto” (248; italics are mine).

13. On this type of “sociability of strange facts,” see Daston and Park, especially Chapter 6; on the connection between magic and secrecy, see Eamon.

14. The amount of food in Espina's party was not by any means a unique feat in Baroque Madrid; Díez Borque, for example, reminds us of a famous banquet in 1657 at the Ermita de San Antonio in El Buen Retiro, in which they served 500 dishes accompanied by 30 different wines (49).

15. The text is stored at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisboa, H. 6. 38; it is partially studied in Cotarelo y Mori 31–7, and fully reproduced in Asenjo Barbieri 188–201, from which I quote.

16. See Caturla's two articles.

17. On this phenomenon, see Aracil 297–339. Aracil argues that Espina borrows the concept of the autómata from the hombre de palo perfected by his predecessor Juanelo Turriano.

18. Vicente Maroto and Esteban Piñero, for example, have recently defined science in Spain as “interés de un monarca, indiferencia de un pueblo” (493).

19. The numbers provided after each citation correspond to the lines of the poem in this edition.

20. Espina's gesture is, once again, typically Baroque, as he hides behind someone else's voice when crafting his self-portrait. In fact, what Carducho actually wrote in his masterpiece Diálogos de la pintura , published five years after this visit took place, was slightly different, focusing on the existence of the famous manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci: “… tiene cosas singularísimas, y dignas de ser vistas de cualquiera persona docta, y curiosa (demás de las pinturas), porque siempre se preció de lo más excelente y singular, que ha podido hallar, sin reparar en la costa que se le podía seguir, preciándose de coger lo muy acendrado, y extraordinario. Allí vi dos libros dibujados, y manuscritos de mano del gran Leonardo da Vinci, de particular curiosidad y doctrina” (438).

21. See García Tapia, Un inventor navarro , 182–4.

22. There is a vast bibliography on the subject. See, for instance, Beltrán Marí's 2006 study, in which he offers one of the most thorough and balanced accounts of the issue.

23. See, for example, Marchitello's convincing re-assessment of disciplinary boundaries in early modern Europe; also, Ait-Touati.

24. On the artistic interests of Galileo, see Peterson's groundbreaking study; Galileo, in fact, considered the development of theater as one of the most attractive aspects of the Madrid he was never able to visit despite several attempts in the 1620s and 1630s.

25. On the figure of Lastanosa, see Rey Bueno and López Pérez.

26. This separation is discussed with stimulating results in Gaukroger, Chapter 1, and in particular in note 40, which provides additional bibliography.