Few medical journals today would prescribe tobacco as a cure for asthma or as a reliable remedy for a stomachache, but Spanish students are studying a 16th century volume that documents these claimed medicinal purposes of New World plants.

Although medicine has advanced a long way since Nicolás Monardes published his medical anthology in 1577, Elvira Vilches , associate professor of Spanish, uses the primary document to allow students to experience the novelty of the discovery of the Americas.

The course she instructs, FLS 413, is entitled Spain and the Americas in Transatlantic Perspective.

“This course focuses on the relationship between Spain and the Americas since Columbus,” Vilches said. “We especially focus on the importance of tobacco and chocolate in the colonization.”

The book by Monardes highlights many qualities of tobacco he found to be medicinal, but in addition to studying PDFs of the original, Vilches requested an original copy of the book from Duke Libraries.

The D.H. Hill Library borrowed the book from Duke Libraries between Nov. 10 and 15. Duke valued the volume more than $10,000, and the D.H. Hill Library Special Collections had to take out insurance on the book, according to Jennifer Baker, a research services associate for Special Collections.

Students were able to read the Spanish in its original typeface, which required some practice, according to Jackson Diaz-Cobo, a senior in international studies.

“It took a few hours to get used to the way they spelled things in old Spanish,” Diaz-Cobo said. “But afterwards it wasn’t too bad.”

Despite the adjustment to the style of the text, students could understand the Spanish that resembled modern Spanish.

According to Vilches, Monardes’ book serves as an exemplary primary document that allows students to relive the experiences of colonization of the Americas.

“Experiencing history through primary documents, like this one, allows students to see this from the perspective of Monardes and how he conceptualized the medicinal uses of plants like tobacco,” Vilches said.

Monardes never ventured to the Americas, but documented goods coming from the New World from his home in Seville. This city on the mouth of Guadalquivir River served as the launch pad of Spanish expeditions to the Americas and was the first stop back in Spain for cargo returning from the New World.

“Monardes documented and even cultivated plants and herbs from the New World in his gardens,” Vilches said. “His work is some of the first to document how products from the New World can be used for medical purposes.”

According to Vilches, the perception of products originating from the Americas took time to gain the trust of European settlers. This aspect of Eurocentrism is widely discussed in this course.

Kemuel Gonzalez, a junior in Spanish education, said the book served as a transition in literature from the era, moving from conspiracy-based writing to scientific and investigative writings.

“When Columbus discovered the Americas, there was a lot of talk about myths, but this book is more scientific and took a more medical approach to investigating the New World and the native fauna,” Gonzalez said.

For Aileen Rodriguez, a senior in Spanish, the course allowed her to re-evaluate her understanding of her Puerto Rican identity.

“I think reading all this stuff lets you see all the differences in how the Spanish perceived the New World,” Rodriguez said. “In previous texts you see words like ‘the Amazons’ and the ‘caníbales.’ In high school, you just learn about Columbus and the three boats, but that’s not everything.”

Rodriguez stressed the importance of Latinos learning about their origins and the conquest of the new world.

“Many people don’t think about our [Latino] origins but now I do understand how our society came to be,” she said. “We just didn’t happen overnight. There are a lot of European as well as native influences that make up my own history. This reading from Monardes is just an example of that. For me, that’s really exciting.”

The material of the class extended beyond the findings of Monardes, according to Vilches.

“The purpose is not to focus on how wrong Monardes may have been with the applications of his medicinal findings,” Vilches said. “Our purpose is to study the process on how Monardes came to his conclusions. From this specific perspective we can piece it into our broader understanding of Spanish colonization. But it is fun to see how far we’ve come since then.”