Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Nicolas Roberto Robles

  • Miguel Hernández

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Miguel Hernandez. Photo via UNED Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Miguel Hernández was born on October 30, 1910, in Orihuela (Alicante, Spain). His father, Miguel Hernández Sánchez, was a cattle dealer, and his mother, Concepción Gilabert Giner, did the housework and took care…

  • Philip the Handsome and the plague

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Figure 1. Tomb of Felipe I and Juana La Loca. Photo by Javi Guerra Hernando on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Philip of Habsburg was born in Bruges in 1478. He was the son of Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold,…

  • King Wamba’s poisoning with cytisine

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Figure 1. Wamba Renouncing the Crown. Juan Antonio de Ribera, oil on canvas, 1819. Museo del Prado. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. In AD 409, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Suevi and the Vandals (of Germanic stock) and the Alans (of Asian origin). The Visigoths came next. They…

  • Baudelaire’s spleen

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Figure 1. Frontispiece of the 1857 proof of Les Fleurs du Mal, annotated by Charles Baudelaire. Gallica Digital Library. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. Je suis comme le roi d’un pays pluvieux, Riche, mais impuissant, jeune et pourtant très-vieux, Qui, de ses précepteurs méprisant les courbettes, S’ennuie avec ses chiens…

  • Clausewitz’s death: Cholera and melancholy

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Carl von Clausewitz. Via Wikimedia. “Sollte mich ein früher Tod in dieser Arbeit unterbrechen” (“If an early death should terminate my work”) — Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege   Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780–1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the psychological and political aspects…

  • Love and syphilis: The marriage of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Diego Peral  Caceres, Spain   Figure 1. Portrait of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer. Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. Via Wikimedia. Public domain. ¡Cuánta nota dormía en sus cuerdas, como el pájaro duerme en las ramas, esperando la mano de nieve que sabe arrancarlas! How many notes sleep in its…

  • Jorge Luis Borges: Brilliant blindness

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Penumbra de la paloma llamaron los hebreos a la iniciación de la tarde cuando la sombra no entorpece los pasos y la venida de la noche se advierte como una música esperada y antigua, como un grato declive. Twilight of the dove the Hebrews called the initiation of the…

  • The romantic suicide: Karoline von Günderrode

    Nicolás Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. Karoline von Günderrode portrait. Unknown artist. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. Suicide, often occurring as an impulsive gesture or from underlying depression, has long been an important cause of death among young people, as exemplified within recent memory by the wave of suicides that followed the…

  • August Von Platen, inspiration for Death in Venice

    Nicolas Roberto Robles Bandajoz, Spain   Figure 1. Portrait of August Graft von Platen. Unknown Author – Holzstich 1879 In Gustav Adolf von Klöden: “Unser Deutsches Land und Volk” (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München/Porträtsammlung). Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. Weil da, wo Schönheit waltet, Liebe waltet Because where beauty reigns, love reigns – Sonette aus Venedig.   August…

  • Guadalupe: One of Spain’s oldest schools of medicine

    Nicolás Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain   Figure 1. The Monastery of Guadalupe. Main entrance. Photo by Rafa G. Recuero. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 ES. Guadalupe, a small Spanish town in the district of Cáceres, Extremadura, arose around a monastery. Legend says that a shepherd named Gil Cordero was looking for a stray sheep when…