Les Manuscrits du Docteur Comte Sébastien Des Guidi

the mental climate of each stage and enjoy or reflect upon the richness of thought that Valencia contributed to eighteenth-century Europe in a search for progress which was realized in subsequent decades, through the recycling of the ideas of the classical world. The work takes us on a tour which starts with the social gatherings of the Conde de Alcudia and of the Marques de Villatorcas; pauses to describe people like the Jesuit mathematician and astronomer Jose Zaragoza y Vilanova (1627-79), and the follower of Galileo and author of the Compendio mathematico (1707-15), Tomas Vicente Tosca (1651-1723); and uncovers for us the artistic creativity of the anatomical plates of Crisostomo Martinez (1638-94). But throughout this tour and despite the many important people touched on, the eighteenth century remains the central focal point as the substance of physico-mathematical contributions grows and as the biological and medical universe widens in the midst of the promotional politics of the Bourbon state and of the prevailing ideology of the useful. Much of what took place in Valencia speaks of its modernity: the updating of the University's curriculum in 1787, the role of certain religious orders, the scientific activities of the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais (Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country), etc. So does the work of explorers, such as, for example, Jorge Juan y Santacilia, a member of the expedition to Peru organized in 1735 by the Paris Academy of Sciences, men who developed their skills abroad and made use of the knowledge provided by foreign travel. Also mentioned are well-known names, such as the botanist Antonio Jose Cavanilles (1745-1804), who as a result of his studies of his native land published Observaciones sobre la historia natural, geografia, agricultura, poblacion y frutos del Reino de Valencia. The surgeon Francisco Javier Balmis (1753-1819), one of the earliest supporters of Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination, who took the process to Spanish America, was another example of those restless, uneasy, unsettling Valencians of genius who came to the fore in eighteenth-century Spain. After the second section by Maria Luz Lopez Terrada, Jose Ramon Bertomeu Sainchez and Antonio Garcia Belmar which provides a catalogue of Valencian scientific books and pamphlets (1700-1814), the first volume is brought to a close by an iconographic section in which 48 illustrations of excellent quality are reproduced from these publications. The whole work is completed by a second 320page volume consisting of a vast and impressive catalogue of Valencian scientific engravings (1687-1844) by Felipe Jerez Moliner.