El Dioscórides de Andrés Laguna en los textos de Cervantes: de la materia medicinal al universo literario

Abstract

The literary works of Miguel de Cervantes have been widely studied from numerous points of view, including the medical one. In the present work, we defend the hypothesis that the Andrés Laguna version of Dioscorides was the source used by Cervantes in his literary passages related to therapeutic aspects, especially in relation to plants with medicinal properties. This book, a copy of which was in Cervantes’ private library, is the only medical treatise cited by the novelist in any of his writings (Don Quixote). Apart from the medicinal plants mentioned in his works, of which we have identified chicory, oleander, henbane, opium poppy, rosemary, rhubarb, tobacco, tamarisk, seeds of spurge, and vervain, Cervantes also seemed familiar with the effects of different pharmaceutical preparations produced from plants (white ointment, Aparicio’s Oil, narcotic powders, etc.). Our hypothesis is backed up by Cervantes’ use of descriptions similar to those of Laguna in his Dioscorides (the hallucinogenic effects of witches’ ointments in The Colloquy of the Dogs, the therapeutic properties of rosemary in the treatment of wounds and traumatisms in Don Quixote, the narcotic effects of opium in The Jealous Extremaduran, the psychodysleptic effects of some love potions in The Licentiate of Glass, or the toxic effects of some poisons in The Spanish-English Lady), and even, in some cases, by use of Laguna’s similar quotations (as in his reference to the purging of excessive bile in Don Quixote).