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M López Gómez

Publications and source records attributed to M López Gómez.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

[Pareidolia in Beato de Liébana's illuminated Visigothic codes].

The visual perception alterations constitute a characteristic etymological field in some neurological and psychiatric processes (such as hallucinations, hallucinosis, etc.) that can also appear in healthy people (metamorphosias, pareidolias). The pareidolia is a phenomenon characterized by the non auto-provoked visualization of a perception in which reality and daydream are combined. It constitutes a source of inspiration for different artistic manifestations, is the basis of some common psychological explorations (such as Rorcharch test) and it even can be the explication to some situations considered as paranormals, for example the vision of faces in the Moon or in Mars or the apparition of sacred figures either in spots or shades... Beato of Liébana was a cantabrian presbyter, author in the eight century of the Comments of the Apocalypse exegesis, copied and illuminated repeated times all through the following centuries. Given the marked revealing and eschatological component of the Apocalypse, starting from the Leon's School (known also as Mozarabic since the Ninth Century), the original was enriched adding another texts with their own illustrations. From them, the Comments to Daniel's Book, from Saint Jeronimus, stands out. The whole of the illuminated Hispanic manuscripts constitutes a "corpus" of amazing codices international known today as Beatos. We have demonstrated that the first History's graphic representation of a pareidolia phenomenon is found in the miniature Visigoth Hispanic manuscripts known as Beatos; we have arrived to this conclusion studying two facsimiles from the x Century (Beato of Valcavado and Beato of Gerona) specially the miniature called Baltasar's Feast; in both codices, is illustrated how this Babylon king perceives the way a phantasmagoric hand spurts up from a candlestick flame and writes in the adjacent wall three mysterious words: MANE, TECEL, FARES, which were only interpreted by Prophet Daniel, requested ad hoc. Baltasar mixed up unintentionally the perceived and the daydreamed starting from a visual field barely structured, we conclude that he suffered from a pareilolia phenomenon, graphically represented by the first time in History in the Beatos.

Fantasy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The neuroanatomy of Juan Valverde de Amusco and medicine at the time of the Spanish renaissance].

Juan Valverde de Amusco (c. 1525-c. 1564) is considered to have been the most important Spanish anatomist of the XVI century. A follower of Vesalius, he increased and divulged knowledge of anatomy during the Renaissance and his book The history of the composition of the human body was printed in Rome in 1556. The objective of this paper is to study the neuroanatomy in this book and present unpublished biographical data and describe the main contributions of this Castilian doctor to the neurosciences, in the context of Spanish medicine during the Renaissance period. He was born in the town of Hamusco (today Amusco) in the province of Palencia, which belonged to the Crown of Castile. Juan Valverde emigrated to Italy to improve his scientific knowledge. He carried out anatomical studies using the then revolutionary method of direct observation, as opposed to the Galenic criteria of authority inherited from the Medieval period. He trained in Padua under Realdo Colombo and lived in Rome where he practiced medicine until his death, becoming deservedly famous. He did not return to Spain since in the Spanish universities of the time there was a mentality which was reactionary to modern anatomy. His works, published in Italy but in the Spanish language, give an idea of the power of the Crown of Castile in the Europe of that period. The book is profusely illustrated with the first illustrations ever published in the history of printing, drawn by Nicolas Beatrizet. The book was sold widely and was translated and reedited on many occasions, until well into the XVIII century. For the first time Valverde made precise references to the minor circulation. He was the first anatomist to describe the muscles for movement of the eye correctly and the intracranial course of the carotid arteries. In his work he made the first drawing of the stapes, described by the Valencian Luis Collado. Vesalius and Valverde contributed decisively to the beginnings of modern neuroanatomy. Thanks to them, the brain is no longer an organ unknown to science.

Anatomy, Artistic↗