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Botany in University Studies in the Late 18th Century. The Case of Valencia University

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Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period

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  1. See J. M. López Piñero and J. Pardo Tomás, La influencia de Francisco Hernández (1515–1587) en la constitución de la botánica y materia médica modernas (Valencia: Instituto de Estudios Documentales e Históricos sobre la Ciencia. Universitat de Vsalència-C.S.I.C., 1996), pp. 25–26; J. M. López Piñero and M. L. López Terrada, La influencia española en la introducción en Europa de las plantas americanas (1493–1623) (Valencia: Instituto de Estudios Documentales e Históricos sobre la Ciencia. Universitat de Vsalència—C.S.I.C., 1997), pp. 11–14; and J. M. López Piñero and M. L. López Terrada, “La botánica en el reinado de Felipe II”, in C. Añón and J. L. Sancho (eds.), Jardín y Naturaleza en el reinado de Felipe II (Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1998), p. 278. According to these authors, in the 16th and 17th centuries, botany did not exist as a scientific discipline, the conversion of the study of plants into a professionwas not contemplated in any form, nor were any rules governing the scientific activity related to botany defined. As a result, figures as distinguished as Fuchs, Clusius, Hernández, the Bauhins, Tournefort, and in the 18th century, Linnaeus, the Jussieus, Mutis, Ruiz, and Pavón, amongst others, continued to practice as physicians and apothecaries. A similar viewpoint appears in Karen Meier Reeds’ works, “Renaissance Humanism and Botany”, Annals of Science 33: 591–542 (1976); and Botany in Medieval and Renaissance Universities (New York and London: Garland, 1991) on botany, humanism, and the university in Renaissance Europe.

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  2. For anoverviewof the University of Valencia in the 18th century, see S. Albiñana, Universidad e Ilustración. Valencia en la época de Carlos III (Valencia: I.V.E.I., Universitat de València, 1988).

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  3. For the chair of simples and herbs at the University of Valencia, see J. M. López Piñero, Ciencia y técnica en la sociedad española de los siglos XVI y XVII (Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1979), pp. 98–99; J. M. López Piñero, “Los saberes médicos y su enseñanza”, in Historia de la medicina valenciana, J. M. López Piñero, dir., 3 Vols. (Valencia: Vicent García Editores, 1988–1992), Vol. I, pp. 111–115 and Vol. II, pp. 11–12; J. M. López Piñero and V. Navarro, La història de la ciència al País Valencià (Valencia: Ed. Alfons el Magnànim, 1995), pp. 67–68, 207–208, 301; J. M. López Piñero, “Las plantas del mundo en la historia. Ciencia, botánica y vida humana”, in J. M. López Piñero and M. Costa Taléns, dirs. (eds.), Las plantas del mundo en la historia. Ilustraciones botánicas de cinco siglos (Valencia: Fundación Bancaja, 1996), pp. 25–27.

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  4. Constituciones de la insigne Universidad Literaria de la Ciudad de Valencia, hechas por el Claustro Mayor de aquella en el año 1733 (Valencia: Imprenta de Antonio Bordázar de Artazu, 1733), p. 86.

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  5. S. Albiñana, “Antecedentes del plan de estudios del rector Blasco”, in A. Ten (ed.), Plan de Estudios aprobado por S.M. y mandado observar en la Universidad de Valencia (Valencia: Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 1984), p. 26.

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  6. A. Ten, “El plan de estudios del rector Blasco y la renovación científica en la universidad española de fines del siglo XVIII”, in A. Ten (ed.), Plan de Estudios aprobado por S.M. y mandado observar en la Universidad de Valencia (Valencia: Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 1984); J. M. López Piñero and V. Navarro, “Estudio histórico”, in J. M. López Piñero et al. (eds.), La actividad científica valenciana de la Ilustración, 2 Vols. (Valencia: Diputación de Valencia, 1998), Vol. I, pp. 64–67.

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  7. The work is entitled Exacta historia de la enfermedad ocasionada por el pescado calcinado llamado pagel, donde se explica todo lo perteneciente a la cal, padecida y formada por el Dr. D [...] (Valencia, 1776). Mention of José Albertós is made in the bibliographic repertoires by J. P. Fuster, Biblioteca valenciana de los escritores que florecieron hasta nuestros días. Con adiciones y enmiendas a la de D. José Ximeno, 2 Vols. (Valencia: Imprenta y Librería de José Ximeno, 1827–1830), Vol. II, p. 87; and A. Hernández Morejón, Historia Bibliográfica de la Medicina Española, 7 Vols. (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Jordán e Hijos, 1842–1852), Vol. VII, p. 353. Also in S. Albiñana, Universidad e Ilustración [...] (footnote 2), p. 288.

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  8. These texts are part of the Plan de Estudios de la Universidad de Valencia que presenta al Real Supremo Consejo en cumplimiento de la Real Orden de 27 de enero de 1772 [...] housed at the AMV (Municipal Archives of Valencia: Libro de instrumentos ordinario del año 1772), D-132, fols. 443r.–580r. A variety of aspects of this syllabus have been studied by S. Albiñana, Universidad e Ilustración [...] (footnote 2), pp. 190–205; J. M. López Piñero and V. Navarro, La història de la ciència [...] (footnote 3), pp. 307–312; J. M. López Piñero and V. Navarro, “Estudio histórico” (footnote 6), pp. 62–63.

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  9. In this period, the teaching of medicine was marked by the influence of the later work of A. Piquer and Arrufat (1711–1772), one of the most influential physicians of that time. He wrote a series of rigorous, up-to-date textbooks that were published from 1735 onward. Villanova must have glossed his Institutiones Medicae ad usum Scholae Valentina, Matriti, Ioachimus Ibarra, 1762. For the influence of Piquer at the University of Valencia, see J. M. López Piñero and V. Navarro, “Estudio histórico” in (footnote 6), pp. 85–88.

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  10. All this is told by Villanova himself in the Libro de méritos de los opositores a cátedra, 117, fols. 320v.–321r., housed in the AUV (Archives of the University of Valencia).

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  11. Manuscript by T. M. Villanova, Distributio plantarum medicinalium. Auctore Angelo Tilli M.D. et Botanices in Pisana Universitate Professore. Pisis Anno MDCCLXXI. 115 fols., Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, Ms. 2242. My grateful thanks to J. M. López Piñero and F. Jérez Moliner for enabling me to locate this manuscript and others belonging to Villanova.

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  12. Noteworthy historical studies about Villanova include those by J. P. Fuster, Biblioteca valenciana [...] (footnote 7), Vol. II, pp. 247–251; A. Hernández Morejón, Historia Bibliogáfica [...] (footnote 7), Vol. VII, pp. 340–344; M. Colmeiro, La botánica y los botánicos de la península Hispano-lusitana (Madrid: M. Rivadeneyra, 1858), pp. 10, 84, 169; F. Barberá Martí, Sesión apologética dedicada al doctor Don Tomás Villanova Muñoz y Poyanos. Discurso leído en la apertura del Instituto Médico Valenciano el día 20 de octubre de 1888, por el Dr. D. [...]. Socio de mérito de esta corporación (Valencia: Ferrer de Orga, 1888) and S. Albiñana, “Las cátedras de medicina en la Valencia de la Ilustración”, Estudis 14:197–200 (1988). For his scientific activity in the realm of botany, see C. Sendra Mocholí, “La enseñanza de la botánica en la Valencia del último tercio del siglo XVIII”, Cronos 1:122–124 (1998).

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  13. R. Gago et al., “El plan de estudios del rector Blasco (1786) y la renovación de las disciplinas científicas en la Universidad de Valencia: la química y la enseñanza clínica”, Estudis 6:63 (1977). These authors grouped his manuscripts by subjects as follows: medicine (five), chemistry (eight), botany (four), hydrology (seven), mathematics (four), astronomy (ten), physics (five), and Arab chronology (one). S. Albiñana, “Las cátedras de medicina [...]” (footnote 12), p. 199, counted seventeen printed works and almost fifty manuscripts.

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  14. The first work is the Problema physicum de mirabili quodam repulsionis affectu ex succi tithymali in aquam instilatione [...] (Valencia: José Estevan Dolz, 1774); the second, by the Italian L. Tessari, was published in Valencia as Materia medica contracta [...] In usum Scholae Valentinae (Valentinae: In Officina Iosephi et Thomae de Orga, 1791), together with Villanova’s tables of corrections De Materia medica contracta Ludovico Tesari nuperrime in hac civitate pro scholae usu recusa monitum ad tirones [...].

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  15. Both Flora Valentina inchoata, sive Plantarum in Valentino Regno [...] and one of the glossaries and most of the teaching notes concerning the study of plants included under the title of Adersaria Botanica are housed in the AMNCN (Archives of the National Natural Science Museum) in Madrid, Ms. caja 180. The other glossary is in the Archives of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Madrid (ARJBM), entitled Vocabularium Botanicum Latino-hispanicum ex variis auctoribus collectum. [...] 1780, Ms. leg. I, 1, 6: 3.

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  16. The University of Valencia was part of the municipality until 1827. See S. Albiñana, Universidad e Ilustración [...] (footnote 2), pp. 24–35.

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  17. Dictamen sobre un Jardín Botánico, Valencia, June 12th 1779, AMNCN, Ms. caja 180. To which the “Plano del huerto de la M.I. ciudad de Valencia sito al lado izquierdo de su mayor Alameda” is attached. AMNCN, M8-CD3/411.

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  18. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 500r.

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  19. Ibid., fols. 519v.–521v.

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  20. T. Villanova, Dictamen sobre un Jardín [...] (footnote 17), Ms., fol. 1r.

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  21. See F. J. Puerto Sarmiento, La ilusión quebrada. Botánica, sanidad y política científica en la España Ilustrada (Madrid: Serbal, C.S.I.C., 1988), pp. 222–242.

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  22. Plan de estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 500v.–501r.

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  23. Hermanni Boerhaave [...] Methodus Studii Medici. Emaculata & Accessionibus locupletata ab Alberto ab Haller [...], 2 Vols. (Amstelaedami: Sumptibus Jacobi Wetstein, 1751).

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  24. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 500v.

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  25. Ibid., fol. 519r.

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  26. The full title of the work is Historia plantarum, quae in Horto Academico Lugdunis-Batavorum crescunt cum earum characteribus, & medicinalibus virtutibus. Desumptis ex ore clarissimi Hermanni Boerhaave..., 2 Vols. (Romae: Apud Frasciscum Gonzagam, 1727). Different editions of this work are known to have been published in Leiden (1727), Rome (1727, 1731 y 1738), London (1731, 1738) and Venice (1766). See G. A. Lidenboom, “Bibliographia Boerhaaviana. List of publications written or provided by H. Boerhaave or based upon his works and teaching. Systematically arranged and compiled by [...]”, in G. A. Lindeboon (ed.), Analecta Boerhaaviana (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1959), pp. 78–79; W. T. Stearn, “Boerhaave as a botanist”, in A. G. Lindeboom (ed.), Analecta Boerhaaviana. Boerhaave and his time. Papers read at the international symposium in commemoration of the tercentenary of Boerhaave’s birth, Leiden, 15–16 November, 1968 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), p. 115.

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  27. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 520r. Lionardi di Capua was a founder member of the researchers’ academy in Naples and later of the Arcades Academy in Rome. See N. F. J. Eloy, Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des sciences médicales, 4 Vols. (Paris: P. Asselin, G. Masson, 1973), Vol. I, pp. 534–536. This quotation is probably from his book Del parere del signor Lionardo di Capoa divisato in otto raggionamenti ne’quali narrondosi l’origine et progresso della medicina e l’incertezza della medicina si fa manifesta (Naples, 1689). This book sets forth the mistakes and doubts in which the doctrines of classical authors incurred and also those of many modern writers. In addition to this, he recommended that botany be studied because plants are the source of most curative remedies for our illnesses.

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  28. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 520r.

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  29. T. Villanova, Dictamen sobre un Jardín [...] (footnote 17), Ms., fol. 1r.

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  30. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 501r.

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  31. It must have been the fourth edition of this work by Piquer: Medicina vetus et nova. Postremis curis retracta, & aucta. Ad usum Scholae Valentinae. Editio quarta (Matriti: Apud Joachimum Ibarram Typographum, 1768). Étienne Françoise Geoffroy taught chemistry at the Jardin du Roi and medicine at the Collège de France, besides being a member of the Académie des Sciences, Paris and the Royal Society, London. His Tractatus de materia medica (1741) was not published until ten years after his death. See W. T. Smeaton, “Geoffroy, Étienne François”, in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 18Vols. (New York: Charles Scribener’s sons, 1972), Vol. V, pp. 352–354.

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  32. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 499v.–500r.

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  33. Ibid., fol. 513r.

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  34. See A. Dechambre, “Crantz, Henri-Joachim-Népomucène”, in A. Dechambre, dir., Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des sciences médicales, Vol. XXII (Paris, p. Asselin and G. Masson, 1879), p. 722; Kleinwaechter, “Crantz, Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von”, in Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker, 5 Vols. (Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1930), Vol. II, pp. 137–138; E. Lesky, “Primera escuela vienesa”, in P. Laín Entralgo, dir., Historia Universal de la Medicina, 7 Vols. (Barcelona: Salvat Eds., 1973), Vol. V, pp. 87–88. Albertós’ reference is to Materia medica et chirurgica, juxta systema naturae digesta, 3 Vols. (Vienna, 1762). Other editions: Vienna (1766) and Lovania (1772).

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  35. As we have already seen, many years later Tomás Villanova took care of publishing this book, which in compliance with the new syllabus of 1787, was to be studied in the fourth year of medicine. See J. L. Peset “Los estudios de medicina”, in A. Ten (ed.), PLan de Estudios aprobado por S.M: y mandado observar en la Universidad de Valencia (Valencia: Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 1984), p. 70.

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  36. Philisophia botanica in qua explicantur fundamenta botanica [...] (Stockholmiae: Apud Godofr. Kiesewetter, 1751). Another edition prior to 1772 published in Vienna (1763). A book that contained 365 aphorisms, one for each day of the year, divided into twelve chapters and accompanied by explanations, comments, references, and examples in smaller print. For an in-depth analysis of this work, F. Stafleu, Linnaeus ans the Linnaeans. The spreading of their ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735–89 (Utrecht: Oostheek’s Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1971), pp. 25–78.

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  37. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fols. 516v.–517r., 523v.

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  38. T._ Villanova, Dictamen sobre un Jardín [...] (footnote 17), Ms., fols. 1v.–2r.

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  39. F. M. Grajales, El doctor Juan Plaza. Estudio biográfico (Valencia: Imprenta de Manuel Alufre, 1893), p. 28, reproduces this provision, agreed upon by the city magistrates on May 16th 1567.

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  40. S. García Martínez, “Gaudenci Senach i la càtedra valenciana de Botànica Mèdica 1682-1694”, Afers 5/6:372 (1987), points out that authors such as M. Velasco and Santos, Reseña histórica de la Universidad de Valencia (Valencia, 1868), V. P. Cervera, Noticia histórica del catedrático valenciano de materia médica Dr Juna Plaza (Valencia, 1895) and F. M. Grajales, Hijos ilustres de Valencia. El doctro Melchor de Villena. Noticia biográfica (Valencia, 1916) declared that this garden did not even last as long as Plaza’s own time. P. Lechón and Moya, Sesión apologética dedicada al Dr Melchor de Villena (Valencia, 1884) wrote nonetheless that this same garden grew considerably years later.

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  41. S. García Martínez, “Gaudenci Senach [...]” (footnote 40), pp. 373–374, 383–384.

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  42. Constituciones [...] 1733 (footnote 4), p. 86.

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  43. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fols. 499v.–500r.

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  44. T. Villanova, Dictamen sobre un Jardín [...] (footnote 17), Ms., fol. 1v.–2r.

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  45. Ibid.

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  46. Ibid., fol. 6r.

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  47. Ibid., fols. 3v.–7r.

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  48. Ibid., fol. 6r.

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  49. Ibid., fol. 7.

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  50. Plan de Estudios [...] 1772 (footnote 8), fol. 523v. Linnaeus used the term botanophili in his Philosophia botanica to describe amateur botanists. See F. Stafleu, Linnaeus [...] (footnote 36), p. 35.

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  51. T. Villanova, Dictamen sobre un Jardín [...] (footnote 17), Ms., fols. 1v.–2r.

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  52. C. Gómez Ortega and A. Palau y Verdera, Curso elemental de botánica, teórico y práctico, dispuesto para la enseñanza del Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1785).

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  53. Ibid., p. xl.

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  54. Plan de Estudios aprobado por S. M. y mandado observar en la Universidad de Valencia (Edición facsimilar a cargo de Antonio Ten. Valencia: Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 1984), p. 8.

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  55. This textbook was published by the University of Valencia as Apparatus medicaminum tam simplicium quam praeparatorum et compositorum in praxeos adjumentum consideratus Scholae valentinae recusus, 2 Vols. (Valentiae, In Officina Josephi Estevan et Cervera, 1790–1791).

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  1. University of Valencia, Valencia

    Cristina Sendra-Mocholí

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  1. California Institute of Technology, USA

    Mordechai Feingold

  2. University of Valencia — CSIC, Spain

    Victor Navarro-Brotons

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Sendra-Mocholí, C. (2006). Botany in University Studies in the Late 18th Century. The Case of Valencia University. In: Feingold, M., Navarro-Brotons, V. (eds) Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period. Archimedes, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3975-1_17

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