In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

30 covered with blackish spots She was covered with blackish spots and she was livid. —maría gonzález A s seville found itself ever more tightly surrounded by infected communities, the situation in the city seemed to be deteriorating as well. On 5 April the plague commission learned that a candle maker who lived on Mar Street had died that day, and his wife and son were sick. The following day the deputies took down the testimony of Bachiller Rodrigo García de Flores, the physician who had treated the family. He stated that he had visited the candle maker, Juan Moreno, and found him in bed and delirious. The physician was able to ask him a few questions, and Moreno told him that the “day before his arm hurt and that he had an abscess underneath.”He then examined the candle maker,“felt him under the said arm,” but Moreno claimed that it did not hurt anymore because Dr. Juan Sánchez had prescribed an “unction of rose oil and it went away.” Indeed, Bachiller García de Flores did not find any lump, though he believed the candle maker “suffered from a poisonous disease and which carried malignancy because it had produced such a bad and pernicious transmutation that left him lethargic, and that is what he died from in two or three days.”The physician added that he had gone back to the house that very afternoon to see Inés Alvarez, the candle maker’s wife, who was “sick with a swelling in the groin,” though he did not perceive any symptoms of malignancy. Her small son had a fever and was complaining of pain under his armpit, but when the physician examined him, he “did not find any bubo.” The apothecary Bartolomé de Barrientos, the candle maker’s next-door neighbor, who knew the family well, was questioned the next day. He confirmed that “Doctor Flores” had treated Juan Moreno and his wife and son. It was Barrientos who prepared the medicines prescribed by the physician, and he be- covered with blackish spots | 225 1. AMS, sec. 13, siglo XVI, vol. 6. 2. Ibid. On prognosis and crisis, see Siraisi, Medieval Medicine, 134–35. lieved that “they are for the said sickness of the plague.” He had more news for the plague commission: the boy too had died. The candle maker’s brother, Gonzalo Martín, testified also. He said his brother had a“tumor above the heart and lethargy and the son had spots and he heard it said that he had a bubo.” His sister-in-law, Inés Alvarez, had “a bubo,” and she was in a bed with “two mattresses and two sheets and a blanket and two pillows.” Her husband’s and son’s bedding had remained in the house after they died, but it was kept apart. As soon as the Count of Villar heard that the infected bedding was still in the house, he ordered it taken to the Arenal, where it was burned near the river. When a few days later, on 10 April, Inés died, her bedding was burned in the Arenal as well. If the governor and the plague commission feared that the family had died of the plague, their suspicions were confirmed on 16 April: Gonzalo Martín, who had testified only a few days earlier , had died “in the said house of the contagious disease within twenty-four hours.” His bedding and linens met the same fate at the Arenal as that of his brother and family.1 The plague commission received other reports of sickness. On 6 April the deputies secured testimony from Dr. Pedro Gómez, who, along with Drs. Benito Carrero and Juan Rodríguez, had been charged by the commissioners with examining anyone in the city suspected of being sick. Dr. Gómez stated that four days ago he had gone to see two sisters of a fruit seller’s widow who lived near the Royal Jail. They had fever, and each one had a lump,“one under the arm and the other beneath the throat,” though the doctor believed that their symptoms were not as serious as was usual“in this contagious sickness.”Furthermore, each one had menstruated, and they seemed to be improving. Therefore Dr. Gómez had not notified “His Lordship the Count in order not to disturb and agitate without reason.” Dr. Gómez indicated that one of...

Share