Sabuco, Oliva de Nantes Barrera (1562–1625)

Spanish philosopher and medical writer. Name variations: Luisa. Born in Alcarez, Spain, in 1562; died in Alcarez in 1625; fifth of eight children of Bachiller Miguel Sabuco and Francisca de Cozar; sister of Alonso Sabuco; married Acacio de Buedo of Alcaraz, in 1580.

Selected works:

Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre, no conocido ni alcanzada de los grandes filosofos antiquis, laquel mejora la vida y salud humana … escuta y sacada a luz par Doña Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera, natural de la ciudad de Alcare (1587); Vera medicine y vera filosofia, oculta a lost antiguos, en dos dialogos (1587).

Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre, the philosophical treatise of Oliva Sabuco, was first published in 1587. Shortly after, Oliva's father Miguel Sabuco gave his oldest son Alonso Sabuco a "letter of power" in which Miguel claimed authorship of the work published under his daughter's name. She had been "named its author only to confer honor on her," he wrote in the letter, and she had no legal or personal interest in it. He then sent Alonso and his wife to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to have the treatise published there under Miguel's name. But Miguel never paid their expenses for the trip (Oliva's husband Acacio de Buedo eventually did) and eventually retracted the statement of his authorship. When his letter was unearthed by historians at the beginning of the 20th century, authorship again became an issue, but the treatise is once again accepted as Oliva's work.

A second edition of the work was published in 1588 (and one further edition was pirated). But the book was suppressed, and all but two copies, parts of which had been erased, were destroyed by the Inquisition. Then in 1622 it was republished in Portugal. The book is considered to have been very influential. Sabuco's philosophy harks back to the classical tradition, and uses the classical dialogue format, to examine the order of nature and humanity. She presaged René Descartes in her concern over the interaction of the soul and the body, placing their nexus in the brain. The treatise is now usually published along with her writing on medicine, Vera Medicine, a colloquy originally published in 1587, which includes a philosophical discussion of the human body and emotions, as well as medical advice.

sources:

Dowling, John. "Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera," in Katharina Wilson, ed., Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. NY: Garland, 1991.

Hurd-Mead, Kate Campbell. A History of Women in Medicine, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Haddam, CT: Haddam Press, 1938.

Kersey, Ethel M. Women Philosophers: a Bio-critical Source Book. NY: Greenwood, 1989.

Waithe, Mary Ellen, ed. A History of Women Philosophers. Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987–95.

Catherine Hundleby , M.A. Philosophy, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada