Printing, Patronage and Preferment: The Works of Andrés Laguna and the Dynamics of Humanist Publication in the Sixteenth Century

Abstract

This article examines the career of Andrés Laguna, a Segovian physician, whose published works were conceived more as part of a strategy to improve his social position, than with a view to making a mark in the field of Renaissance Humanism. It is drawn from a wider analysis of the position of the converso in Spain in the sixteenth century which looks at the assimilationist trajectory of the second generation of conversos after the 1492 decree of expulsion, and takes Laguna as representative of those who, rather than choose exile, strove to assimilate with the literate elite of Spanish Christian society. The imperative for Laguna was to lay claim to the most advantageous position he could, and, instead of using his medical skills, as his father had done to make himself useful to the local Bishop, Andrés used the philological tools gleaned from a Humanist education to ingratiate himself with the cultural elite. He did so not just out of a desire for financial reward, but also for social elevation, professional recognition and for the protection which closeness to people in power afforded someone like him, who bore the mancha of a Jewish heritage.

Notes

¹Miguel Ángel González Manjarrés, Andrés Laguna y el humanismo médico: estudio filológico (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2000).

²Bryan Richardson, Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1999), 49–50.

³Richardson, Printing, Writers and Readers, 53–56.

⁴Mattioli was named doctor to one of Ferdinand's sons in 1555 after dedicating to him the Commentarii, in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de Medica Materi (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1554).

⁵Giovanni Fratta, Della dedicatione de’ libri, Con la Correction dell'Abuso, in questa materia introdotto. Dialoghi del Sig. Giovanni Fratta, Nobile Veronese (Venice: Giorgio Angelieri, 1590) (British Library 1072.h.25), f. B4^r: ‘Anco loglio s'inalza egualmente con le biade, per benignità de i Cieli. Ma con che termine date nome di virtuoso al mecanico? essendo la virtù un'habito dell'animo, c'ha già fatto l'huomo perfetto, in tutte l'attioni morali, per il che non puote, se non difficilmente, errare; E colui, che dedica i suoi Libri, con intentione di tener mercato di quelli, si mostra più tosto cupido di guadagno, che di virtù studioso, facendo errore à non sodisfarsi del buon'animo, ma à ricercar il premio, ilquale è fuori della natura del benefitio, & con ciò à condurre a partiti durissimi il donatario, che non è atto alla remuneratione, senza l'aiuto de i beni della fortuna’.

⁶Fratta, Della dedicatione de’ libri, f. C2^v: ‘Verrà dunque uno scrittore di quelli, che sono auezzi à viuere come fanno gli augelli di rapina, a presentarmi alcuno suo scartafaccio, & io sarò cosi priuo del mio naturale arbitrio, che facendo violenza à me stesso, & alla legge dell'amicitia, lo riconoscerò con doni, & gli resterò amico?’

⁷Fratta, Della dedicatione de’ libri, D2^v–D3^r: ‘Prendiamo l'esempio da quelli, che sanno più di noi, che non m’è lecito nominare, che stampati i libri gl'inuiano à qualche persona, che stimano liberale, né riuscendogli alla proua, squarciano quella lettera, e ne rimettono un'altra, ò più fin à tanto ch'incontrano un soggetto, che risponda effettualmente la desiderio loro; né contenti di questo, da indi à poche giornate ristampano detti volumi, e di nuouo gli appoggiano, per cauarne emolumento, come appare nel Dioscoride del Mattioli, più volte dedicato; se bene nelle prime editioni fu magnificamente riconosciuto’.

⁸Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Commentarii (Venice: Officina Valgrisiana, 1565) (Biblioteca Historica de la Complutense), is dedicated f. *2^r: ‘Invictissimo potentissimoque romanorvm imperatori semper Augusto, Maximiliano secundo, &c. Serenissimis, illvstrissimis sacri romani imperii electoribvs, etc. Ferdinando et Carolo, Avstriae Archdivquibvs, etc. Ac caeteris vniversae germaniae principibus dominis meis clementissimii’.

⁹Andrés Laguna, Aristóteles de mundo seu de cosmographia liber unus ad Alexandrum, Andrea à Lacuna Secobiensi interprete, nunc primum in lucem emisus. Luciani dialogus tragopodagra nominatus non minus eruditus et festiuus et elegans. Per eundem Andream à Lacuna Secobiensem latinate donatus (Alcalá de Henares: Juan Brocar, 1538) (Biblioteca Nacional de España, not in catalogue but discovered at R/348645 by Julián Martín Abad, La imprenta en Alcalá de Henares [1502–1600], 3 vols [Madrid: Arco Libros, 1991]).

¹⁰The dedication to the Emperor follows a conventional formula: ‘Inuictiss. Imperatori, Christianiss. Caesari, Diuo Carolo quinto eidemque semper Augusto Andreas à Lacuna Secobeinsis. S.D.’, 2; as does that to his chief doctor: ‘Doctiss, simul et Humaniss. Viro, domino. D. Ferdinando Lopez Schoriaceo, Doctori medico, Caesareaeque Maiestatis Archiatro longè dignissimo’, 31; but the one to his fellow Segovian is more personal: ‘Viro multis numeris absolutiss. In omnique disciplinarum genere (ut caetera fortunae dona praeteream) eruditissimo, Domino. D. Gundissaluo Perez, Inuictissimi Caroli Quinti asseclae uigilantissimo’, 40, commending his dedication to the fostering of science which, according to Laguna, warrants him a mention, even above those of greater learning.

¹¹Marcel Bataillon, ‘Les Nouveaux chrétiens de Segovia en 1510’, Bulletin Hispanique, 58 (1956), 207–31 (p. 208).

¹²Diego de Colmenares, Historia de la insigne ciudad de Segouia y conpendio delas historias de Castilla, 2^a ed. (Madrid: Diego Diez, 1640), 709–10: ‘Quedò en tanta opinión con el Enperador, que partiendo por la posta à sessegar la alteración de Gante, dexò orden de siguiesse Doctor Laguna […]’.

¹³Teófilo Hernando y Ortega, ‘Introducción y comentarios’, in Andrés Laguna, Pedacio Dioscórides Anazarbeo, 2 vols (Madrid: Instituto de España, 1968), I, 15–133 (p. 32), citing a list of court physicians published by Luis Lovera de Ávila in Libro del regimiento de la salud y de la esterilidad de los hombres y mugeres [...] (Valladolid: Sebastián Martínez, 1551).

¹⁴The comment is made, in agreement with Bataillon, in the introduction to Andrés Laguna, Europa Heautentimorumene, es decir, que míseramente a sí misma se atormenta y lamenta su propia desgracia, trans. and ed. Miguel Ángel González Manjarrés (Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2001) and concludes that: ‘[…] debemos sospechar que durante este tiempo el segoviano buscó fortuna en los alrededores de la Corte, para que trataría de ganarse la estima y favor del ministro imperial y cristiano nuevo Francisco de los Cobos y, sobre todo, del secretario Gonzalo Pérez, también cristiano nuevo y segoviano’ (29). Laguna's Europa was first published in Cologne in 1543 by Johann von Aachen.

¹⁵The full titles of these three works are: De natura stirpium liber unus et alter, exigui quidem, si Chartas numeres, caeterum multis gemmis ornati: heactenus nondum in lucwm aediti. Nuncureo es Graecis Latini facti, atque liberati ad interitu (Cologne: Johann von Aachen, 1543), which is the work normally translated as De plantis; Europa EAYTHN TIMΩPOYMENH, hoc est misere se discrucians, suamque calamitatem deplorans. Ad reuerendissimum et Illustrissimum Dominum, D. Hermannum a Vueeda, Archiepiscopum Coloniensem, et Sacri Imperii Principem electorem. Andrea a Lacuna Secobiensi, Philiatro Authore (Cologne: Johann von Aachen, 1543); Aristotelis philosophorum principis, de virtutibus vere aureus atque adamantinus libellus, ex Graeco in sermonem Latinum par Andream a Lacuna Secobiensem, Medicum, summafide atque diligentia conversus, scholiisque & exemplis multis, locupletatus (Cologne: Johann von Aachen, 1543)—see f. a2^r, for the title of the dedication.

¹⁶This apologia begins on f. 20^r [c4^r] and he does not return to the speech until f. 24^v.

¹⁷Andrés Laguna, Ex commentariis Geoponicis, siue de re rustica, olim Diuo Constantino Caesari adscriptis octo ultimi libri, sed qui primus dignitate antecellunt, ut pote in quipus miro quodam ordine & artificio animalium ferè omnium naturae moresque, & modi quipus ea educari conueniat, accuratissimè exaggerantur: nunc demum ad fidem vetustissimorum codicum ex Graecis Latine facti Andrea à Lacuna, Secobiensi Philiatro, interprete (Cologne, Johann von Aachen, 1543), ff. A3^r–A3^v.

¹⁸Laguna, Ex commentariis Geoponicis, f. a2^r: ‘Ad Christianissimum et invictissimum Caesarum, Divum Carolum Quintum, Eundemque semper Augustum’.

¹⁹Laguna, Ex commentariis Geoponicis, f. a1^v: ‘Per te liceat adire Carolum Caesarem / Quintum, partenis nostri haeredem aqquissimum, / Vti nos profugos dignetur patrocinio / Contra malignorum uires, iniurias’.

²⁰This additional work, announced on the title page of Geoponica, has its own separate title-page presenting it as Castigationes Andreae a Lacuna Seconiensis, in tralationem octo ultimorum librorum de Re Rustica, Constantini Caesaris, per Ianum Cornarium Physocum editam (Coloniae: Johann von Aachen, 1543); the imprint is on this second title-page and not on the translation which prefaces it. By criticizing a rival in this way he makes a case for the value of his own version. Laguna had done something similar with De Virtutibus announcing on the title-page that along with his translation and commentaries came: ‘Additae sunt ad calcem aliquot in Grynaeum castigationes, Ex quibus liquidò ostenditur, eum non uertisse, sed potius peruertisse Artistotelem’.

²¹Cornario's version was titled Constantini Caesaris selectarum praeceptionum, de agricultura libri viginti, Iano Cornario medico physico interprete (Basel: Froben, 1538) [BL].

²²This comes at the end of the letter to his host Adolfo de Eicholtz in which he lists by name everyone who assisted him during his stay in Cologne, and though he acknowledges that he has made some good contacts in Metz, he says he is thinking of going where the intellect is held sacred (De Virtutibus, 152 [k4^v]: ‘Apud quos quidem aliquantulum respirauero, alio nobis peregrinandum est, nempe quo mens Diuina gressus nostros direxerit’).

²³Francisco Duarte, the ‘encargado de la intendencia’ of the army awarded him the provisioning contract, which Laguna acknowledges in his Epitome Omnium Galeni, f. 9^r.

²⁴Hernando y Ortega, ‘Introducción y comentarios’, in Laguna, Pedacio Dioscórides Anazarbeo, I, 125.

²⁵González Manjarrés, Andrés Laguna y el humanismo médico, 60–61.

²⁶We learn this from the ‘Epistola Nuncapatoria’ in the second part of his Epitome Omnium Galeni which he dedicated to the Pope, f. aaiiiv. According to González Manjarrés, Andrés Laguna y el humanismo médico (113), this work was originally presented in manuscript to Johannes von Epstein und Mintzburg, Gymnasiarch of the Cologne Cathedral and printed there in 1546 by G. Genepeo, after Laguna had left. It is not known whether the copy presented to the Pope was in manuscript or if it bore a new dedication written for the occasion.

²⁷Laguna acknowledges the generosity which Mendoza showed him and the other studiosos omneis he sponsored, in the ‘Epistola Nuncapatoria’ in the first section of Epitome Omnium Galeni, f. VI^v: ‘Quam sane tibi insitam, cognatamque in studiosos omneis benignitatem, abunde etiam sum ipse expertus: quippe quum me anno quadragesimo sexto supra millesimum, ex Germania reduntem, ubi primum attigi Romam, quam munificentissime exceperis, exceptumque praefeceris curae ualetudinis tuae, ac postea in dies magis summa liberalitate locupletaueris’.

²⁸ Epitomes omnium Galeni Pergamini operam, uniuersam illius viri doctrinam et methodum, quam accuratissime continentis, per Andream Lacunam Secobiensem, Doctorem Medicum, atque ex sacro Militum Sancti Petri apud Vrbem collegio, Auratum Equitem, summa fide atque studio collecta. Cautum est Pontificia, Caesarea, et Christianissimi Regis, Augustissimique Senatus Veneti authoritate et decreto, ne quis impune hoc opus aut cudat, au tab alio excusum, quam a Hieronymo Scoto, exponat venale (Venice: Girolamo Scoto, 1548).

²⁹The various parts were subsequently printed together as Epitome Galeni Pergameni operum in quatuor partes digesta: pulcherrima methodo vniuersam illius viri doctrinam complectens / per Do. And. Lacunam Secobiensem, equitem auratum, & medicum longè excellentissimum, summa fide studióque collecta. Accesserunt eiusdem And. Lacunae annotationes in Galeni interpretes: quibus varii loci, in quos hactenus impegerunt lectores, & explicantur & summa fide restiuuntur. Item, de ponderibus & mensuris medicinalibus vtilis commentarius: index rerum & verborum maximè memorabilium copiosissimo (Basel: Thomas Guarin, 1571).

³⁰There were several further dedications in these volumes: to Fernando de Mendoza, ‘De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, Sectio I; to Arias Gonzalo, Count of Puñorostro, ‘Theriaca ad Pisonem’; and to Gaspar de la Hoz, Canon of Segovia, ‘De ponderibus ac mensuris medicinalibus commentarius’, both in Sectio IV.

³¹ Sectio III is dedicated as follows: ‘Illvstrissimo, et clementissimo Principi, Cosmo Medices, Tuscorum Duci Optimo et Maximo, Andreas Lacuna Secobiensis, Doctor Medicus, Miles Sancti Petri. S. P. D.’

³² Sectio III, f. 5^r: ‘Ergo si, Illustrissime Heros, hasce nostras uigilias tuo patrocinio dignaberis, ego quidem uidebor haud lusisse meam operam: Galenus autem, ad pristinam dignitatem quam gerebat olim, dum in summa esset authoritate apud priscos Impatores, deesse sibi nibil prorsus existimabit: quin potius baerens apud. C. T. Auctam plurimis modis beatitudinem suam arbitrabitur’.

³³ Vita Galeni Pergameni ex Galeno ipso et ex variis avthoribvs, per Andream Lacunam, Secobiem Doctorem Medicum, Militem Sancti Petri sumo studio collect (Venice: Girolamo Scoto, 1548), is dedicated to Aguilera as follows: ‘Clarissimo et Sapientissimo viro, D.D.Ioanni Aquilerio, Medico Pontificio, bonarum literarum fautori maximo, Andreas Lacuna, Secib. Doc. Med. Miles Sancti Petri, S. P. D.’ (f. 2^r). Aguilera is mentioned too in the ‘Epistola nuncapatoria’, in Sectio I dedicated to Cardenal Mendoza (f. 4^r), and in the dedication of Sectio II to the Pope (ff. a3^r–a3^v): ‘Quaecunque de tuenda ualtudine Galenus Pergamenus conscripsit, ea omnia nuper instigatione Excellentissimi Viris Ioannis Aquilerii, tui Medici longe uiglantissimi, a me et castigate, et in enchiridion coacta, dicare Tuae Beatutudine statui’.

³⁴Juan Hurtado de Mendoza had taken over from his uncle Diego as Venetian Ambassador in 1547 and held the post until 1552. This appendix was originally published as Annotationes In Galeni interpretes in Venice by Scoto, and was reprinted as Epitome omnium rerum et sententiarum, quae annotatu dignae in Comentariis Galeni in Hippocratem extant, per Andream Lacunan Secobiensem, Medicum Iulii Pont. Max. in Elenchum minime poenitendum digesta (Lyon: Guillaume Rouille, 1554), and the dedication reads: ‘Clarissimo viro, D.D. Ioanni Furtado à Mendozza, apud Veneros Oratori Caesareo longè dignissimo, Andreas Lacuna S. P. D.’

³⁵This ‘Index Locvpletissimvs Omnium rerum et sententiarum, quaecunaue notatu dignae in hac Galeni epitome habentur’ was published together with Vita Galeni, and is prefaced (ff. 9^r–10^v) with a dedication to: ‘Clarissimo et prudentissimo viro, D. D. Francisco Duartaeo, Sacri Caesareique excercitij Prouisori Generali, Statusque Mediolanensis Conseruatori Vigilantissimo, Andreas Lacuna, Secobien. Dect. Med. Miles S. Petri, S. P. D.’

³⁶The dedication to De arriculari morbo commcntarius. Ad S. D. N. Ivlium III. Pont. Max. Authore Andrea Lacuna Segobiensi, Medico Pontifico. Cui accessit Tragopodagra Luciani, juxta fidem exemplarium Graecorum in Latinam linguam conversa (Rome: Valerio & Luigi Dorico, 1551), reads f. 2^r [Aiir]: ‘Santísimo Domino Nostro, Ivulio Tertio, Pont. Max. Andrea Lacuna Segobeii S. P. D.’.

³⁷M. R. Pazos, Episcopado gallego a la luz de los documentos romanos (Madrid: CSIC, 1946). The poem is titled as follows: De articulari morbo, f. Aiv: ‘Liber commendat se Illustrissimo Principi, ac Reuerendissimo Praesuli, D.D. Ioanni à Toleto, Archiepiscopo Diui Iacobi Compostel. S. R. E. Cardinali Amplissimo’.

³⁸ Methodus cognoscendi exstirpandique excrescentes in colle vesicae carunculas, authore Andrea Lacuna Segobiensi, Medico Iulii III. Pont. Max. Illustrissimique et Reuerendiss D. D. Francisci a Mendoza Card. Burgen. No date or place of printing is given but it is mentioned by Amatus Lusitanus in a context which shows that it came out in Rome in 1551 (see González Manjarrés, Andrés Laguna y el humanismo médico, 137).

³⁹See Francisco Díaz, Tratado nuevamente impreso, de todas las enfermedades de los riñones, vexiga y carnosidades de la verga (Madrid: Francisco Sánchez, 1588), ff. 318^v–319^r [Rr4^v–Rr5^r]: ‘Es Laguna médico español doctísimo, natural de la ciudad de Segovia, ejercitado en Medicinas simples […] pero usó de tanta brevedad en un librillo que hizo de Estirpandis Carnuncilis, que no puede entenderse del cosa bastante a poder curar este mal, y lo trata como hombre que nunca lo usó ni practicó, más de solamente haberlo oído decir, porque claro se entiende haber sido de oírlo solamente y por eso no me hinché el ojo [i.e. satisface]’.

⁴⁰ Annotationes in Dioscoridem Anazarbevm, per Andream Lacunam Segobiensem, Medicum Iulii III. Pont. Max. iuxta uetustissimorum codicum fidem elaboratae (Lyons: Guillaume Rouille, 1554). The dedication, p. 3 [f. a2^r], reads: ‘Gonzalo Perez à secretis Philippi Hispanarum Principis Andreae Lacunae S.P.D.’

⁴¹ Acerca de la materia medicinal y de los venenos mortíferos, Traduzido de lengua Griega, en la vulgar Castellana & illustrado con claras y substantiales Annotationes, y con las figuras de innumeras plantas exquisitas y raras, por el Doctor Andres de Laguna, Medico de Iulio III. Pont. Max. (Antwerp: Jan de Laet, 1555); as this was the year of the Emperor's abdication Philip is presented in the dedication as his heir: ‘Divo Philippo, Divi Caroli. V. Avg. Filio haeredi, Opt. Max. Dicatum’.

⁴²Hernando y Ortega, ‘Introducción y comentarios’, in Laguna, Pedacio Dioscórides Anazarbeo, I, 107, reports that the first instructions for the laying out of gardens at Aranjuez were given in 1550 although it did not truly become a botanical garden until after 1560, with the arrival and planting of the necessary specimens. In support, he cites A. González Amezúa y Mayo's prologue to Agricultura y jardines by Gregorio de los Ríos.

⁴³The poem, f. 1^v, is in the voice of Dioscorides who says he is seeking refuge in Spain and addresses himself: ‘Al Illustrissimo Señor Rui Gomez de Conde de Melito, y Camarero del Sereniss. Rey de Ingalaterra, Principe y Señor nuestro’, &c.

⁴⁴ Discurso breue sobre la cura y preservacion de la Pestilencia hecho por el Doctor Andres Laguna, Medico de Iulio III. Pont. Max. (Antwerp: Christoffel Plantin, 1556).

⁴⁵The dedication to Discurso breue sobre la cura y preservacion de la Pestilencia concludes as follows, f. 6^r: ‘El qual trabajo mio tan importante, quise que saliesse illustrado, y esclarecido, del nombre de V. S. Illustrissimo, la prefacion del qual solo basta, para efforçar cualquier coraçon flaco, y atribulado, contra tan capital enemiga: y para exterminarla à ella, como asombrada de algun valeroso rayo de Iupiter. No puedo acordarme sin lagrimas, de aquella estraña bondad, grandeza, y majestad, del Conde de buena memoria, vuestro dulcísimo hermano (cuyas virtudes heroicas, y sancta conuersacion, no merecimos acà en la tierra, pues tan presto le tranpuso Dios)’.

⁴⁶ Quatro elegantísimas y grauissimas oraciones de M. T. Ciceron, contra Catalina, trasladadas en lengua Española, por el Doctor Andres de Laguna, Medico de Iulio III, Pontifice Maximo (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1557), repr. with Obras de Cayo Slustio Crispo (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1796), 227: ‘Al muy magnifico señor El Sr. Francisco de Eraso Secretario y del consejo de Su Majestad’, &c.

⁴⁷ Acerca de la materia medicinal y de los venenos mortíferos, Traduzido de lengua Griega, en la vulgar Castellana & illustrado con claras y substantiales Annotationes, y con las figuras de innumeras plantas exquisitas y raras, por el Doctor Andres de Laguna, Medico de Iulio III. Pont. Maxi. (Salamanca: Mathias Gast, 1566). The privilege, f. 1^v, begins: ‘Por quanto por parte de vos el Doctor Andres Laguna nos ha sido hecha relacion que aueys traducido con mucho trabajo y costa vn libro intitulado Anazarbeo Dioscorides de lengua Griega en Romance Castellano […]’.

⁴⁸Marcel Bataillon, ‘Sur l'Humanisme du Docteur Laguna: deux petits livres latins de 1543’, Romance Philology, 17:2 (1963), 207–34 (p. 234).

⁴⁹We are told about his father's position in the dedication to Anatomica methodvs, sev de sectione hvmani corporis contemplati [...] (Paris: Jacques Kerver, 1535), f. a2^r & f. 3^v, which reads: ‘Generosissimo Simvl et ornatissimo viro, domino, D. Didaco à littore, Secobiensis ecclesiae praesuli meritissimo, Andrea à Lacuna Secobiensis philiatros. […]’; f. 3^v: ‘Ad haec etiam, cui per deos vigilae nostrae iustius consecrarentur, quam tibi moecenati clarísimo, qui quum eruditorum omnium studia, rara quadam alacritate foueas, ea etiam amoris vicissitudine patrem meum es prosecutus, vt non solum inter familiares medicos eum potissimum tibi delegeris, verumetiam amplis muneribus magnificisque locupletaueris?’.