User:Soysauce1108/Eleanor of Toledo

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Medical Influence

An emphasis on domestic healthcare, largely spearheaded by women, was common practice during the early modern period until the nineteenth century. Women acquired both practical and technical medical knowledge through hands on experience and the oral tradition of passing down medical knowledge. Not confined to the common household however, noblewomen like Eleanora and her mother-in-law Maria Salviati played an influential role in court medicine, bringing family recipes to the courts they married into.

Knowledgeable in daily care routines and rituals, standard medical practices, and newer medicines originating in Asia, Eleanora could be found at the center of medicine in the early Medici court. Eleanora was instrumental in constructing a formal medical court denoted by a system of hierarchy. Her knowledge and rank often put her in regular contact with court physicians and allowed her to influence important medical decisions. For instance, in 1544, Eleanora adeptly instructed Andrea Pasquali, the court physician, to formulate and administer a salve made out of distilled human fat to her daughter Maria after she received a gash on her head while playing. Using substances like human fat for medical remedies was common practice in Iberia and utilized by the Spanish in their colonies, highlighting the wide breadth of medical knowledge Eleanora possessed.

Eleanora made household medicine political by bartering healthcare for favors both within and outside the court, contributing to the long-established patronage system. How medicine was employed at the court reinforced a ranking system marked by status, but Eleanora also extended access to healthcare for many relatives, visitors, and courtiers. The early Medici court held an account at the Canto del Giglio apothecary for the benefit of its courtiers, thereby helping to secure future political support.

Similar to her mother-in-law, Eleanora demonstrated proficient pharmaceutical ability and knowledge, as a number of correspondences indicate her proclivity for ordering or instructing the creation of medicinal remedies and recipes. Due to her status as Duchess, Eleanora was exposed to the transnational and international economy of Italy and Europe. Holding this position allowed her to receive and exchange new pharmaceuticals making their way through Europe alongside other luxury goods. The inclusion of new medicinals amongst diplomatic gifts helped transform them into forms of political currency, as some medicinals and pharmaceuticals were more difficult to obtain due to political conflict, price, or availability. For example, a medicinal clay known as terra sigillata was gifted to Eleanora from Istanbul in 1553. The clay could be used as an antidote for poison and cure for general maladies. However, conflict with the Ottoman Turks made it difficult to produce and procure throughout Europe. Her possession of the valuable clay solidified her status as a noblewoman with the power to influence wider medicinal networks of exchange.

Her proximity to medicine and pharmaceuticals extended to the developing field of cosmetics and beauty. As syphilis and smallpox manifested through skin lesions and abnormalities, clear skin increasingly became the standard of beauty. As a result, clear skin became tied to one's social and economic status or nobility. Eleanora's name is attached to a popular face tonic made and distributed by the court provisioner Stefano Roselli. Scholars are unsure if Eleanora created the recipe or if her name was merely attached to Roselli's product for marketing purposes. Nevertheless, attaching people of nobility to products became standard practice among producers. Scholars also argue that Eleanora could be responsible for the introduction of a perfume named 'The Queen of Naples's Angel Water' to the Medici court. All perfumes at this time were meant to protect and strengthen the brain from malignant humors, but this one was also good for the heart due to a composition that included myrtle and neroli. Scholars believe it was the introduction of this perfume that inspired Bianca Capello and her stepdaughter Maria de' Medici to create and distribute more perfumes throughout the Florentine and other Renaissance courts.