Over the course of numerous articles and three well-received books, Fernando Serrano Larráyoz has established himself as an important voice in discussions of the history of Navarra. Serrano Larráyoz’s particular interest is in the medieval period, while the topics to which he returns most frequently pertain to questions of diet, medicine, and health. Given the nature of his research, it comes as no surprise that Serrano Larráyoz possesses an enviable familiarity with a wide range of archival materials, which he puts to good use in his most recent book, Léxico médico y farmacológico en lengua vulgar y latina de la documentación cortesana navarra (siglos XIV–XV) [Medical and Pharmacological Lexicon in Vernacular and Latin from Documentation from the Navarrese Court (Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries)], on medical and pharmacological terms in Navarrese Romance. The result is a beautifully and meticulously produced volume, which opens with a prologue by Ana Isabel Martín Ferreira – who is herself the author of studies of, among other topics, medicine in medieval Spain and medieval Spanish medical texts – followed by Serrano Larráyoz’s well-documented introduction, the lexicon, a brief bibliography of relevant studies and sources, and an index of the terms and variants included.

As Serrano Larráyoz notes in the introduction, the key to understanding medical and pharmacological language in Navarrese Romance is to be found not in codices or printed books but in administrative documents in the Archivo Real y General de Navarra [Royal and General Archive of Navarra], which includes texts both from the Royal Chancery and from individuals tied to the Navarrese monarchy. Thus, the more than 650 terms found in the lexicon are drawn from materials held in the Archivo Real y General de Navarra in the Sección de Comptos [Accounts Section], which comprises some 25 000 individual documents and around 500 account books from the period in question. The fact that Serrano Larráyoz works with administrative documents rather than codices and printed works on medical topics presents certain challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, codices and printed books, particularly of a didactic nature, are rich not only in terminology but also in definitions and examples, which are usually missing from administrative documents such as account books, official communications, and lists of medicines. This means that the definitions that Serrano Larráyoz provides for each term are not necessarily contextual, drawn from the documents themselves, but are taken from other sources, such as dictionaries. On the other hand, documentation of an administrative nature allows us to see the real-world practice of medicine and pharmacology as well as the extent to which Galenism reached beyond the medical and pharmacological communities into popular discourse.

The lexicon itself includes terms in Navarrese Romance, Spanish, Catalan, Latin, and, to a lesser degree, Occitan. The terms are presented alphabetically, usually Castilianised and modernised, although on occasion the original form of the word is retained, since any changes might lead to confusion. This process follows the norms of the Diccionario español de textos médicos antiguos (1996); it is also consonant with the Castilianisation of Navarrese Romance occurring in the fourteenth century.Footnote ¹ Each term is then accompanied by information regarding the part of speech and the language, a definition, and one or more citations from archival documents, which demonstrate usage and context.

The Léxico médico y farmacológico is a painstaking compilation of relevant medical and pharmacological terms – really a labour of love – that has required of its author a deep knowledge of the history of medicine, particularly of the medieval period; the history of the Kingdom of Navarre as well as Spain; the history of various languages; and a gift for paleography and codicology. Moreover, as Martín Ferreira remarks, the lexicon is singular in scope and unique in a developing field, focused not on a specific area of medicine or medical practice, but on the broad range of medical and pharmacological terminology as revealed in the documents at hand. Because of its breadth and detail, the Léxico médico y farmacológico will allow for a deeper understanding of not just the language but also the history of science, of mentalités, and of habits and customs of a particular place at a particular time. As such, it will be of great interest to historians, particularly medievalists and/or historians of science and medicine, and to philologists and linguists as well as to anthropologists.