标题：Poisons as criminal tool in the literary works of Cervantes. The influence of Andrés Laguna and his addendum Acerca de los venenos mortíferos, Book VI of Dioscorides
期刊名称：Eä : Revista de Humanidades Médicas & Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología
电子版ISSN：1852-4680
出版年度：2017
卷号：9
期号：1
页码：23
出版社：ISO-CYTE
摘要：In the present work we have analyzed the Cervantine works from the perspective of extra-therapeutic use of toxic psychotropic substances as criminal tool during the Spanish Golden Age, within the framework of the sorcery practice. We have focused on the two most representative Cervantine texts in this field, such as exemplary novels The Jealous Extremaduran and The Spanish-English Lady. Cervantes expressly mentions, in masked form (“alopiado” ointment), the opium (Papaver somniferum) in The Jealous Extremaduran, but he does not identify the ingredients of the poisonous potion in The Spanish-English Lady, though, within the meaning of the symptoms described by the author, they could be plants of the Solanaceae family, such as black hellebore (Helleborus niger), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) or yew (Taxus baccata). We carried out a comparative study of the described toxic effects in these two novels with the pharmacological properties noted in Dioscorides commented by Andres Laguna, a scientific text available to Cervantes in his private library, and we have confirmed a strong similarity. Therefore, we defend the hypothesis that the Andres Laguna version of Dioscorides could be the technical source used by Cervantes to document itself in this matter.
关键词：Miguel de Cervantes; Andres Laguna; Dioscorides; poisons; History of Medicine; Spanish Golden Age.
