The Plague Files: Crisis Management in Sixteenth-Century Seville

Introduction

introduction Seville was one of Europe’s largest Atlantic port cities in the late sixteenth century , comparable in size to Lisbon, London, and Antwerp. Only Paris andVenice had more inhabitants than Seville.1 The urban complex was a vibrant, cosmopolitan place that attracted migrants from nearby towns and other areas of Andalusia as well as Extremadura and further afield. The population included traders and merchants from Castilian cities such as Medina del Campo, León, and Burgos, and many Basques, Galicians, and Catalans lived in Seville. There were numerous residents from the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the commercial and banking cities of Genoa and Venice, and some from Greece. There were people from Flanders, France, and Germany as well as England, but there was an especially large community of Portuguese, given the proximity of their homeland to Seville. Slave ownership bestowed status, and many Sevillians had not just African slaves but also an occasional Amerindian captive. From a vantage point near the crest of the bluff of Castilleja de la Cuesta overlooking the Guadalquivir River basin, the spectator could discern to the east the elegant Muslim prayer tower, the Giralda, capped by the Christian belfry with its magnificent weathervane, towering above the cathedral and the nearby Alcázar. Elements of Islamic Spain were still visible, determinedly standing even three centuries after the 1248 Christian reconquista (reconquest). The Triana plain spread across the foreground, its vineyards producing palatable wines as well as vinegar and its many vegetable gardens and olive and fruit trees supplying Seville’s hungry population and the export trade. Even from a distance one could easily trace the mighty river and note the imposing castle housing the tribunal of the Inquisition. The fearsome fortress sat on the west bank of the Guadalquivir, dominating the maritime district of Triana, and near the centuries-old pontoon bridge linking the western suburb to the city proper on 1. Estimates of Seville’s population in the 1580s range from 120,000 to 150,000; see Ruth Pike, Aristocrats and Traders: Sevillian Society in the Sixteenth Century (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972), 12–13; and Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, La sociedad española en el siglo XVII (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1964), 140–41. 2 | the plague files 2. We have used Spanish names for people and places except when they are particularly well known by an English equivalent. Although we would refer to Cristóbal Colón as Christopher Columbus , we have kept his son as Hernando Colón. 3. Juan Ignacio Carmona, Crónica urbana del malvivir (s. XIV–XVII): Insalubridad, desamparo y hambre en Sevilla (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2000), 21–23. the east side of the river. The massive wall surrounding Seville, dotted with towers and gates, was clearly visible. A prolonged look would reveal the outlines of the narrow winding streets of the older sections of the city and the dozens of church towers as well as numerous monasteries and convents. Gazing in a northeasterly direction toward Cordova, the observer might pick out on the far side of the river the house built by Hernando Colón and, on the nearer side, the Carthusian Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas.2 All this supposes our observer was surveying the scene on a clear day. Often the basin was blanketed by the thick smoke of hundreds of ovens and furnaces baking tiles and all types of pottery. Triana was the major center for the production not only of these articles but also of soap, bread, and hardtack and gunpowder to supply the demands of the army and navy. The heavy air was further contaminated by the steaming pots of the caulkers sealing the hulls of the ships careened on the riverbank. Early modern Seville was polluted, and its streets were filthy. Offal and human and animal excrement tended to be tossed into the street, and garbage often piled up to the point that passage became difficult. City officials periodically passed measures to clean the city, but such cleaning was a sporadic operation. The streets would be cleared of garbage, but it would soon start accumulating again; and when the filth and stench reached a certain point, or the plague threatened, the councilors would issue new directives for waste removal. The best water came from the nearby Archbishop’s Spring (Fuente del Arzobispo ) or was piped in by the Carmona aqueduct from another spring near Alcalá de Guada...