“Even if I were as well skilled in the knowledge of medicine as Juan de Villalobos of the bygone time.” (Page 103).
The name of this celebrated physician was Francisco, and not Juan, as Cervantes styles him, apparently by mistake. Villalobos was a native of Toledo, and one of the most distinguished men of his age. He was a learned and skilful physician, a profound philosopher, and an elegant poet. He was physician to King Ferdinand the Catholic, and afterwards to the Emperor Charles V., in whose palace he resided until the death of the Empress Isabel, in the year 1539. The cause of the empress’s death is, by some authorities, alleged to have been a malignant fever, whilst others state that she died in childbirth. But, be that as it may, the event was a source of deep grief to Villalobos, who reproached himself for not having succeeded in saving her life. Having become very dejected in spirits, he solicited and obtained the emperor’s permission to remove from court.
In his retirement Villalobos employed himself in writing several works on medical and philosophic subjects. He conceived that the services he had rendered to the Imperial family, were but inadequately requited, and on this subject he gave vent to his dissatisfaction both in verse and prose. In one of his writings he makes the following reflections in allusion to the neglect with which he felt himself treated: “Having served the court till the age of seventy, I may say that my period of service has extended to my death; for my remaining span of existence can scarcely be called life, being merely the endurance of the pains and miseries of old age. I have studied and exerted my faculties, not to enable poor labourers to wear old men’s shoes, but to secure the blessings of health to the greatest and best princes in the world. And to this object I directed all my thoughts and efforts, often passing anxious nights without sleep, and many times only resting my poor bones on the floor. Their Majesties though knowing these facts which they witnessed with their own eyes, neither afforded me the opportunity of making my fortune nor of securing a subsistence for my son, which might easily have been done. This neglect must be attributed to one or two causes, or to both those causes conjointly. Either I have not merited the reward to which I imagine myself entitled, or those by whose advice and information their Majesties were guided, forgot me, remembering others more near to them but whom perchance I preceded both in priority of service as well as of age.”
Villalobos was the author of some notes and commentaries on Pliny’s Natural History, which were published, but many other works which he wrote in Latin were never submitted to the press. In noticing these works, he himself says:—“Spanish printers will not print Latin books unless the author himself defrays the expense from his own pocket. And as I am not a bookseller, I hold it to be a hardship to study and labour in the production of the work, and then to spend my money for the advantage of those who after all will shew me but little gratitude.”
In addition to his learning and scientific attainments, Villalobos was distinguished for his humorous and satirical disposition, a quality which is conspicuous in his spirited translation of the Amphytrion of Plautus. Moratin observes, that no other translator has so happily transferred to the Spanish language the jests and humorous sallies of the great comic dramatist of antiquity.
(C).
“Or a Nicolao Monardes of the present time.” (Page 103).
Monardes was a native of Seville, and an eminent physician in the time of Cervantes. He was the author of several works on medicine and natural history which enjoy well deserved celebrity. The following are the titles of a few of his most celebrated writings:—
“Primera Segunda i tercera partes de la Historia Medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales que serven en Medicina.” (First, second, and third parts of the medical history of those objects, the growth of our Western Indies, which are made use of in medicine.)