The Payment Cure

<h3>Abstract</h3> This article explores the functional pharmacopeias produced through a court case involving Maria de Ayala (widow of apothecary Francisco de Madrid) and the Manzanedos (heirs of Félix de Manzanedo, chancellor of the University of Valladolid and magistrate of the Valladolid court) in Valladolid, Spain, between 1577 and 1578. Maria de Ayala sued the Manzanedos for failing to repay the debt they owed to Madrid. As a result of Ayala’s and Madrid’s meticulous preservation of prescription slips, the court arranged for a transcription and tally of all the medications sold to Manzanedo and his family. A functional pharmacopeia reveals one family’s history of ailments and healing and shows that rose medicaments were a favorite cure in the archive of practice. Toggling between this functional text and reference pharmacopeias that standardized <i>materia medica</i> across Spain, this article uncovers the intellectual networks that defined Spanish pharmaceutical practice. Legal documents addressing issues of debt repayment reflect the development of a regional understanding of medical cures and their value. The pile of prescriptions, now connected with a single string, tells the story of an apothecary shop and a family’s role in defining the price of cures.