Francisco Hernandez de Toledo

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Francisco Hernandez de Toledo (* 1514 or 1517 in La Puebla de Montalbán , † January 28, 1587 in Madrid ) was a Spanish doctor and naturalist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is “ F.Hern. ".

Live and act

Quatro libros de la naturaleza y virtudes de las plantas y animales. México: 1615.

Francisco Hernández, who had Jewish roots, studied medicine at the University of Alcalá from 1530 to 1536 . He then worked as a doctor in Torrijos and later in the hospital of the Guadalupe Monastery . He was classically and philosophically educated, was in contact with leading doctors and scientists ( Andreas Vesalius , Juanelo Turriano , Juan de Herrera , Benito Arias Montano ) and also began botanical studies. He found scientific recognition with his studies on the medicinal effects of plants and a Spanish translation of natural history by Pliny the Elder .

In 1567 he became the personal physician of King Philip II of Spain . Due to difficulties with the Inquisition, the latter sent him on an expedition to Central America as a naturalist. In August 1570, on behalf of the king, he set off from his home in Seville on the first modern scientific expedition to the New World . He was u. a. accompanied by his son Juan and the cosmographer Francisco Dominguez . After a six-month crossing during which they visited the Canary Islands, Haiti, Hispaniola and Cuba, he reached Veracruz in February 1571 and traveled from there to Mexico City, the starting point of his future trips. He traveled to Mexico and probably in the neighborhood, but did not come to Peru as originally planned, and not even to Guatemala. Contact with local doctors, whom he was supposed to monitor, was also difficult due to the mistrust of the Inquisition (but he managed to dissect 1,576 corpses during a yellow fever epidemic).

In New Spain , Hernández and his Indian companions collected numerous plants, animals and minerals. He used the knowledge of the native Indians about medicinal and poisonous plants, learned their language ( Nahuatl ) and asked them questions. Hernández described the finds and had drawings made of them. In 1577, after a seven-year stay, he brought a total of 17 extensive volumes back to Spain, seven of them with descriptions and ten with drawings. He described 3000 plant species (and 500 animal species) that were largely unknown to the western world at that time. In Spain, after his return, he was the personal physician of the Infante, later Philip III.

Hernández wanted to publish his travel results in three versions: in Latin for the European scientists, in Spanish for his compatriots and in Nahuatl for the inhabitants of New Spain. However, he was not allowed to publish his work, which was often compiled under difficult circumstances. Philip II handed the volumes over to the El Escorial library for safekeeping. There they were destroyed by fire in the summer of 1671. But there were enough copies in circulation by scientists who had studied his notes. A new partial edition of his works took place in 1790 by Casimiro Gómez Ortega with the help of the work "Francisci Hernandi, medici atque historici Philippi II, hispan et indiar" found in the Colegio Imperial de los Jesuitas in Madrid . Regis, et totius novi orbis archiatri. Opera, cum edita, tum medita, ad autobiographi fidem et jusu regio ”.

Honors

Charles Plumier named the genus Hernandia of the Hernandiaceae plant family in his honor . Carl von Linné later took over this name.

Fonts

  • Obras Completas, 7 volumes, Publicación del el Instituto de Biología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1959 to 1985 (editor Isaac Ochotorena Mendieta, who published a first version of the Historia de las Plantas de Nueva España by Hernandez from 1942 to 1946)
    • Historia de las Plantas de Nueva España, 3 volumes ( online ).
  • Plantas y Animales de la Nueva Espana, y sus virtudes por Francisco Hernandez, y de Latin en Romance por Fr. Francisco Ximénez , Mexico 1615
  • Francisci Hernandez rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, Rome 1628 (edited by Frederico Cesi )
  • Nova plantarum, animalium et mineralium mexicanorum historia a Francisco Hernández in indis primum compilata, de inde a Nardo Antonio Reccho in volumen digesta, Rome: Vital Mascardi, 1648 (editors Johannes Schreck , Fabio Colonna )

proof

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Plumier: Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera . Leiden 1703, p. 6f.
  2. ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 93.
  3. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 516.

Further literature

  • Simon Varey (Editor): The Mexican treasury: the writings of Dr Francisco Hernández . Stanford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8047-3963-3 .
  • Simon Varey, Rafael Chabrán and Dora B. Weiner (editors): Searching for the secrets of nature: the life and works of Dr Francisco Hernández . Stanford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8047-3964-1 .

Web links

Wikisource: Francisco Hernandez de Toledo  - Sources and full texts (English)
personal data
SURNAME Hernandez de Toledo, Francisco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish doctor
DATE OF BIRTH 1514
PLACE OF BIRTH La Puebla de Montalbán
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1587
Place of death Madrid