Audio Tour 1: Who was Francisco Diaz?

Visit the online European Museum of Urology to find out even more.

Transcript:

Francisco Diaz (1527-1590) was an eminent Spanish doctor and urologic surgeon of King Philip II in the 16th century, also known as Spain’s Golden Age. Castilian surpassed Latin as the official language to promote and advance the Spanish Empire.

Diaz was an academic doctor, educated in the University of Alcalá de Henares, and not an empirical surgeon. He was fully dedicated to treating diseases of the urinary tract and to promoting the medical education of physicians, surgeons and barbers in this field.

In this exhibition you can see a more than four hundred year-old, original copy of his most important book, the title of which can be translated as: “Newly printed treatise on all diseases of the kidneys, bladder, fleshiness of the penis and urine”.

It is considered the first treatise on urology in the history of Medicine, as it was specifically dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of renal, bladder and urethral disease. This was the first book dedicated to the urinary tract as a treatise.

Within its 405 pages, it has quite a good number of plates that reproduce surgical instruments of Diaz’s time, both for lithotomy and urethral treatments, thus reinforcing the surgical nature of the text. Several surgical instruments that are depicted are of his own invention, like the modified civet, a metal catheter with a cutting point that he used to perform blind urethrotomy.

The exquisite pharmacological and botanical knowledge of the author is also on display. The book is accompanied by laudatory sonnets from the two most famous poets and writers of the time, Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega. This special book was reprinted several times.

In this exhibition you can also see another antique copy of Diaz’s work included in “Universal Surgery” by Juan Fragoso, published in 1666. Very few copies of these two books are preserved today.

A collection of surgical instruments invented by Diaz to treat urethral strictures are also on display in this exhibition. They include a primitive blind urethrotome Diaz named “scissoring instrument of our invention”, sort of a modified metal catheter with a spike in its tip to cut the stricture.

Another instrument that he named “speculum pudendi” was designed to trap stones that block the urethra. To perform urethral washings he used a catheter with curved tip named “lavatorio” and a syringe or “xiringa”. Another novelty in Diaz’s treatise was the use of “candles covered with a flesh-eating ointment” (caustic bougies) to treat urethral strictures and obstructing prostatic tissue.

Diaz participated in the inquisitorial process against Elena/Eleno de Céspedes, a transgender female-to-male surgeon who married a lady. As an expert in male genitals he was appointed as witness. For the civil process Diaz initially identified  Eleno as a male, but during the “Auto de Fe” trial he was forced to change his expert report to consider that Elena was using some sort of prosthetic device or had surgically transformed her genitals so that Diaz was cheated or confused.

Eleno was accused of heresy and found guilty of mocking the sacrament of marriage. Some doubts still remained and Eleno managed to save her life but was condemned to 200 lashes and 10 years of surgical practice without salary.