Para resolver los humores gruessos y melancólicos: material knowledge and visual culture around Paeonia officinalis in the Cabinet Salvador

Abstract

This paper is structured around a professional internship developed at the Institut Botànic de Barcelona that consisted in the organization and cataloging of the photographic archive (1985-2017) related to the Salvador Collection. Based on a reflection on the importance of cataloging and disseminating these photographic images in the preservation of the Salvador Cabinet as scientific heritage, we propose a study on a pictural image that stamps one of the doors of the herbarium cabinet. The painting on the furniture of the Cabinet represents the species Paeonia officinalis, which is also part of the Cabinet’s herbarium and pharmacy. This work demonstrates the importance of an investigation that takes into account the intersection between these three areas, to understand its meaning within the Salvador Cabinet, giving special attention to its uses in the treatment of melancholia, the “invisible disease”. Thus, it is intended to associate analytical work around practices related to scientific heritage to investigative work on its history, in order to expand its diffusion.