This text consists of the ‘lectio praecursoria’ given at the defense of my doctoral dissertation “The Good Noblemen Who Conquered the Kingdom: Islam, Historiography, and Aristocratic Legitimation in Late-Medieval Portugal”. This dissertation deals with aristocratic historiography and political legitimation in late-medieval Portugal (late…[Read more]

According to the medical tradition, the temperament of bodies came from the balance of their primary qualities – hot, cold, dry, and moist. However, physicians associated additional sensory properties with temperament in the field of pharmacology. These sensations included taste, color, and odor, which allow an appraisal of the constitution and a…[Read more]

This biography of the German medical doctor and minerologist Diederich Wessel Linden (fl.1745-1768; d.1769) is the unabridged, pre-publication version of an accepted and revised article for publication in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. This version is also available as an online blog post:…[Read more]

From antiquity, Galenic physicians extensively discussed the active powers of simple and compound drugs. In their views, simple drugs, that is, single ingredients, acted according to their material qualities and the properties of their substance. As for compound drugs, their efficacy resulted from the mutual interaction of their ingredients and…[Read more]

The purpose of this paper is to submit a project proposal regarding the publication of the Valencian Parliamentary papers in which we want to achieve three main goals: to digitize and transcribe the parliamentary sessions for later publication on the web, which will facilitate access to these texts for both the public and the scientific community;…[Read more]

A pesar de que se trate de una tremenda obviedad, es obligado comenzar estas líneas destacando la forma totalmente distinta en que los historiadores se aproximan a una fuente escrita, los cancioneros castellanos, que, en principio, está destinada a ser campo de trabajo para el filólogo. Por encima del texto, por encima de la indudable riqueza fi…[Read more]

No descubro nada nuevo comenzando estas líneas aludiendo al sobradamente conocido carácter de mecenas cultural y de impulsora de grandes obras artísticas de Isabel la Católica , cuyos resultados son fáciles de detectar a lo largo de todo su reinado (1474-1504). Concretando este comentario general en lo que ha sido el núcleo de mi tesis docto…[Read more]