Ask the Duchess! “Scientific Secrets” among Seventeenth-Century Spanish Nobility

Fray Ignacio Muñoz (ca.1608/1612-1686) was a seventeenth century Dominican friar who, in the service of the Spanish crown, produced a remarkable body of scientific work that is only recently beginning to be explored. Throughout his life he was based in the Philippines, Portuguese India, Mexico and finally Madrid. In his later years Muñoz, in addition to serving his sovereign, also placed himself in the service of Manuel López de Zúñiga y Sarmiento de Silva, tenth Duke of Béjar and Plasencia (1657-1686). In the service of this noble house Muñoz must have learned to get by in the courtly environment of his new patrons, convincing them of the benefits of his scientific talents. Interestingly, Muñoz seems to have developed a certain complicity with Teresa de Sarmiento, Duchess of Béjar and mother of his patron, since a note in the margin of his magnus opus - Observationes Diversarum Artium (ca.1660-1686) - records how they exchanged “scientific secrets”:

To cut the glass. A twine is placed on the part to be cut, sticking it subtly with wax. Once glued, the twine is powdered with ash of twigs. Then this ash is set alight with a wax candle, and as it burns the glass is cut. I saw it already cut in the possession of the Most Excellent Duchess of Béjar, D. Teresa Sarmiento, who told me this secret in May, in the year 1677 [Observationes Diversarum Artium, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Mss. 7111, Fol. 153]. [Fig.1.]

Fig. 1.

This is just one example of the scientific dynamism that could be found around the nobiliary courts of the Spanish empire in the seventeenth century, a subject that, like Muñoz’s work, still needs to be further explored. And remember, if you have any scientific doubts, just ask the Duchess! [José María Moreno Madrid]