Searching for the Secrets of Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández ed. by Simon Varey, Rafael Chabrán, Dora B. Weiner, and: The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández ed. by Simon Varey (review)

REVIEWS 236 the Repertorium, the year 1522—which follows Cortés’s conquests in Mexico and Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe—closes the volume. As these events mark the end of the cycle of exploration initiated by Columbus, they present a fitting termination point. Symcox provides a thorough preface to the material that includes an introduction , conclusion, and six sections that address various aspects of the Columbian voyages upon which the texts shed light (1–24). He clarifies the importance of the various documents and indicates how they prove useful in considering historiographical debates. The reader learns, for instance, that the texts may assist in illuminating the role of diplomacy in the late middle ages and early modern period (4–8)—an issue that has been debated since Garrett Mattingly first raised it in 1964.35 Debates surrounding the texts are also discussed , such as the difficulties in dating and interpreting the first papal bulls (10–13). In his conclusion, Symcox contextualizes the documents by clarifying that while Italians followed the voyages with keen interest, events in the New World did not compare in significance to the wars that followed the French invasion of Italy in 1494. In the late fifteenth century, Italians were more concerned with events closer to home, and it would not be until after the mid-sixteenth century that the political and economic significance of the explorations would become evident (22–24). The translator, Peter Diehl, has enhanced the English edition by providing useful information in the footnotes that increases the non-specialist’s understanding of the material. Biographical information is frequently supplied for the authors and recipients of the texts, modern names of geographical locations are provided, terms such as “Venetian braccio” are demystified, and a comprehensive bibliography is included. For the benefit of the specialist, Giovanna Rabitti has checked all of the Italian documents against the originals in the archives and has provided a note on the preparation of the texts. Unfortunately, the original texts are not presented en face with the translated text, and the source references are located in a separate section. The net result makes it somewhat time consuming to thumb back and forth. Despite this minor criticism, overall the work succeeds in fulfilling Chiappelli ’s original goals for the Repertorium, for the newly edited and translated documents enable a wider audience to gain an understanding of how Italians perceived events in the New World. Significantly, the letters and dispatches collected in this volume demonstrate the means by which “news of the Americas , their flora and fauna, their exotic inhabitants, their fabled wealth, all spread swiftly to a public hungry for information (24).” MICHELLE MIRANDON, History, UCLA Simon Varey, Rafael Chabrán, and Dora B. Weiner, eds., Searching for the Secrets of Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández (Stanford , CA: Stanford University Press 2000) xvi + 229 pp., ill.; Simon Varey, ed., The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández , trans. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stan35 Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (Baltimore 1964). REVIEWS 237 ford, CA: Stanford University Press 2000) xix +281 pp., plates and ill. In 1988 French archaeologists with whom I worked on a Celtic and Gallo-Roman excavation near the town of Soissons in Picardy asked me what lasting contributions Native American cultures had made to the world. Having recently taken an undergraduate botany class, I rattled off a list of fruits and vegetables, many of which—tomatoes, paprika, potatoes—now form the core of national European cuisines. At the end of our customary post-dinner discussion, the air still heavy with smoke from unfiltered Gaulois cigarettes, I felt, however, that I had failed to impress them with the importance of indigenous American civilization . Would that I had been armed with these two volumes of works by and about Francisco Hernández (1515–1587), who as chief medical officer was sent by Philip II to New Spain to lead a scientific expedition with the goal of studying and cataloging the flora of Mexico and Peru. Among their many other contributions , The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández and Searching for the Secrets of Nature...