Nicolás Monardes

Who was Nicolás Monardes?

Nicolás Bautista Monardes was a Spanish physician and botanist.

The genus Monarda was named for him.

Monardes published several books of varying importance. In Diálogo llamado pharmacodilosis, he examines humanism and suggests studying several classical authors, principally Pedanius Dioscorides. He discusses the importance of Greek and Arab medicine in De Secanda Vena in pleuriti Inter Grecos et Arabes Concordia. De Rosa et partibus eius is about roses and citrus fruits. It is known that Monardes also believed that tobacco smoke was an infallible cure for everything.

Monardes' most significant and well known work was Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales, published in three parts under varying titles. This was translated into Latin by Charles de l'Écluse and into English by John Frampton with the title "Joyfull News out of the New Found World".