On the Bicentennial of the foundation of the National Prado Museum (I) Chemical aspects of the Spanish Enlightenment in the Villa y Corte of Madrid and Mexico City

Abstract

The Spanish Illustration (1700-1808 or 1814) ended without the opening of the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences and without the continuation of the related Royal Laboratory of Chemistry in Madrid, inaugurated in 1788 by the chemist, pharmacist and professor Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno. In Mexico, the Royal Botanical Garden and the Royal Mining Seminar continued, inaugurated in 1788 and 1792, respectively. Chemistry flourished in both establishments, highlighting the contribution of the pharmacist and botanist Vicente Cervantes Mendo, professor of Botany, the first translator into Spanish of the Traité élémentaire de Chimie (1789), published in 1797 for the use of the mining establishment.