The body of the Republic. The organicist metaphor in three medical discourses of the Spanish Golden Age

Abstract

This article describes, analyzes and compares the presence of the body metaphor in the works of Bernardino Montana, Jerónimo Merola and Cristobal Pérez de Herrera. Considering the historical constants in the use of the body metaphor as mechanism of legitimation of power, the plurality of political and economic meanings found in the discourses of these three representatives court physicians of Spanish Renaissance, is studied. By documentary comparison, in the inmediat context, have been identified elements of formal, conceptual and practical change of metaphor along the nearly sixty years, and the two changes in the Spanish monarchy, which mediate between them.