La retórica de la peste: imaginería apocalíptica en los tratados de peste del Renacimiento peninsular

This article examines the spectacular representation of plague in three Renaissance medical treatises written in vernacular Spanish: Hexámeron theologal sobre el regimiento medicinal contra la pestilencia (1519) by Pedro Ciruelo, Discurso breve sobre la cura y preservación de la pestilencia (1556) by Andrés Laguna, and Remedios preservativos y curativos para en tiempo de peste (1597) by Miguel Martínez de Leyva. Heavily tinged with catastrophic nuances, these treatises include hyperbolic prologues where the authors engage in a discussion about which of the four apocalyptic foes is the worst, concluding that plague is the most fearful one, as it not only leads men to death, but it also provokes the dissolution of social structures. Understanding these texts as spaces of negotiation where both anxieties over illness and a rationalizing intention converge, this study explores their organizing rhetoric and, more concretely, the symbolic value of rhetoric, which emerges here as weapon and antidote against the chaos summoned by plague. © 2014