Francisco Hernandez de Toledo

Francisco Hernández de Toledo or de Boncalo (La Puebla de Montalbán, Toledo; ca. 1514 to 1517-Madrid, 28 December January 1587) was a Spanish physician, ornithologist, and botanist.

Biography

Illustration of Rivea corymbosa in an edition of Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus, seu plantarum, animalium, mineralium historywhich was attributed to Francisco Hernández.

He studied Medicine at the University of Alcalá and practiced for several years in Toledo and Seville. He also practiced at the Guadalupe Monastery Hospital, a prestigious role that was also well paid. He returned to Toledo around the year 1565 and was soon transferred as court physician.

From a great scientific background, he devoted much energy to the study of nature. He had a solid intellectual and scientific background and an open mind to new things. There was a marked Aristotelianism in his studies of nature.

He was chosen by Philip II to lead a scientific expedition to America focused especially on the territory of New Spain: Commission of Francisco Hernández to New Spain. Hernández had 60,000 ducats to organize the trip. In January 1570, the king appointed him general physician of our Indies, islands and mainland of the Ocean Sea.

Hernández left in August 1571, along with his son, and landed in February 1572 in Veracruz. For three years he toured New Spain, especially the central plateau. Notes on observations of it have not remained. The expedition included a geographer, painters, botanists and indigenous doctors.

From March 1574 until his return to Spain in 1577, Hernández lived in New Spain where he built a collection, studied local medicinal practices, and conducted archaeological studies. During these years he built up a considerable collection of plants, dried or not, 38 volumes of drawings and numerous notes, three of which are written in Nahuatl.

Hernández died before seeing his work published. Given its cost, Felipe II commissioned the Neapolitan doctor, Nardi Antonio Recchi, to publish an abbreviated version. The originals were kept in the El Escorial library but they disappeared, probably destroyed during the fire of 1671. Therefore, only fragments of his immense work are known. Successive delays (the editor died prematurely) led to the abridged work not being published until 1635 and 1651. A new compilation by the physician Casimiro Gómez Ortega, published in 1790 and based on additional material found in the Imperial College of the Jesuits in Madrid, was titled Francisci Hernandi, medici atque historici Philippi II, Hispan et Indiar. Regis, et totius novi orbis archiatri, opera: cum edita, tum inedita, ad autographi fidem et integritatem expressa, impensa et jussu regio.

Hernández described 230 species of birds but the lack of illustrations, which have been lost, makes their identification very difficult. Hernández systematically cited the names in Nahuatl from which it is possible to classify the birds.

Timeline

• 1514 - 1517 (?) or perhaps between 1515 - 1520 (Somolinos), Francisco Hernández was born.
• 1535 - 1537 studied medicine and surgery.
• 1555 explores Andalusia and shows interest in medicinal plants
• 1560 is a doctor of the monastery and the hospital of Guadalupe.
• 1562 - 1568 for these years writes his Compendium of Philosophia Moral according to Aristotle (the text is included in the complete works published by UNAM).
• 1567 is named "camera physician" in the court of Philip II
• 1570 arrives in America accompanied by his son Juan.
• 1571 - 1576 starts intense scientific activity in Mexico, despite its economic problems
• 1576 sends letter to King Philip II, summarizing his work and methods. This letter will be part of four books.
• 1577 Hernández returns to Spain
• 1578 continues to polish a part of his works, while those finished are preserved by the king.
• 1580 Philip II appoints Dr. Nardo Antonio Recchi as a camera doctor. Recchi would be responsible for reviewing and ordering the works of Francisco Hernández. In that same year, Hernández writes the famous poem Ad Ariam Montanum, Virum Praeclamrissimum Atque Doctissinum, expressing his anguish and protest against the king.
• 1587 dies Francisco Hernández.

Honors

Eponymy

• (Hernandiaceae) Hernandia L.

Posts

Cover Four books of nature and virtues of plants and animals. Mexico: 1615.

• Francisco Hernández. Quatro Nature Books. Mexico: Viuda de Diego López Davalos; 1615. Archived on 15 October 2016 at Wayback Machine..
  • Reproduction in electronic facsimile, at Commons.
    • Facsimilar reproduction in PDF.
• Francisci Hernández. Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu Plantarum, Animalium, Mineralium Mexicanorum History cum notis Joannis Terentii Lineæi. Rome: 1648.
• Casimiro Gómez Ortega. Francisci Hernandi, medici atque historici Philippi II, Hispan et Indiar. Regis, et totius novi orbis archiatri, opera: cum edita, tum inedita, ad autographi fidem et fundamentalitatem expressa, impensa et jussu regio (1790).
• His texts were translated into English in 2000, with the title of The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández (Stanford University Press. xix + 281 pp.) by Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin & Simon Varey. The volume is accompanied with Searching for the Secrets of Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández (Stanford University Press, 2000. xvi + 229 pp.), containing communications on the life and work of Hernández.