Andrés Piquer and the Neo-Hippocratic Teaching of Medicine in Eighteenth Century Spain

Abstract

Eighteenth century Spain witnessed a revaluation of the Hippocratic works as a result of the growing criticism of the Galenism dominant in the Spanish University of the time. Probably the most important author in this reformist trend was Andrès Piquer y Arrufat (1711-1772), eclectic philosopher, university professor and doctor to the Kings Fernando VI and Carlos III. His desire to transform medical university instruction following Hippocrates' rules led him to make some of the first Hippocratic treatises from ancient Greek to Spanish, for the first time. Among these treatises, the translation and commentary of Epidemics 1 and 3, and partially of Epidemics 2, are especially noteworthy. This medical and philological work relates not only to Hippocrates but also to the medical concepts of Thomas Sydenham, the English Hippocrates. The Clinical Histories and descriptions of katastasies in his Observationes medicae (London, 1676) exerted a great influence not only on A. Piquer but also on many Spanish doctors. Moreover, the works of Herman Boerhaave and especially of his pupil Gerhard van Swieten left their imprint on the ideas of the Spanish doctor. Besides his translations, A. Piquer wrote many treatises based on Hippocratic teaching for university students, in Latin as well as in Spanish. His Praxis Medica was translated into Portuguese and his Tratado de las calenturas (About the fevers) into French.