The Congregation and College of Apothecaries of ‘San Lucas y Nuestra Señora de la Purification’ of Madrid’ (1654-1675)

Abstract

On March 13, 1650 Felipe IV signs, in Madrid, a Royal Certificate by which the guild of apothecaries of Madrid, organized around the brotherhood of ‘Señor San Lucas y Nuestra Señora de la Purificación’, are exempt from its own taxes of manual workers; for it, the apothecary trade is considered a ‘scientific art’. Our analysis revolves around the internal functioning of this group of Madrid apothecaries who, despite their religious and welfare nature, hold union privileges. A ‘micro-history’ of a small professional community -the group on which I center my study rarely exceeded fifty members- for which I have used the documentation preserved in the Archive of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy [ARANF]. It is, in its entirety, books and writings of an administrative nature, accounting in most cases, but whose analysis allows us to glimpse the social and institutional problems faced by this professional group. Another source of information, not insignificant, is provided by the texts of which the members of this group are authors, particularly the short-run booklets, in which they make us part of their controversies and their different views on the way in which that their professional activities have to evolve. Keywords: apothecaries; Madrid; XVII century; professional groups