The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), based at the Palau de Cerveró, hosts Wednesday 16 October at 19:00 the lecture entitled “The Dr Josep Romagosa, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Valencia”. The presentation will be given in Valenciano by Ángel Manuel Hernández, Doctor in Biological Sciences in the University of Barcelona.

In addition to the lecture will be launched the book “Metges, cirugians I apotecaris d’Olesa de Montserrat” (Doctors, surgeons and apothecaries of Olesa de Montserrat), which deals with the work of different doctors who were born or practiced this profession in the town mentioned (Barcelona) from the 16th to the first half of the 20th century. After the presentation and introduction of the Dr. J. Corbella, it will be a biographical sketch of a hundred and fifty professionals from Olesa, highlighting the figure of the Dr. José Romagosa Gotzens (1812-1868), born in the Catalan town.

The Dr. José Romagosa was doctor of the Cathedral Chapter of Sigüenza and Full University Professor of the Universities of Zaragoza and Barcelona, before to be appointed, in 1845, Full University Professor of the Surgical Clinic of the University of Valencia. Since 1856 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Valencia. For many years he was surgeon of the Hospital General de Valencia and enjoyed great professional prestige. One of the operative techniques that he improved was the amputation of legs. As pathologist he fought against the cholera epidemic of 1854. Among the numerous honours he had received, we must point out, in 1911, the name of a central Valencian street.

Once finished the biographical study, the main part of the book, offers a comprehensive documentary corpus, which allows a second reading, an expanding of the biographies, the historical contextualisation or the erudite analysis of the characters. The text is completed with an alphabetical index of the doctors studied, a list of referenced files (among them the Historical Archive of the University of Valencia, the Archive of the Kingdom of Valencia and the Newspaper library of Valencia), the bibliography and a general index.

Regarding to the author of the book, Ángel Manuel Hernández Cardona (Barcelona, 1948) is Cum Laude Doctor in Biological Sciences (1978) by the University of Barcelona. He has obtained the certificates for historical and philological research (1998) and for research in local files (1999) in the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was professor of the universities of Malaga, and Murcia and Full University Professor of the institute in Spain, Colombia and Morocco. He was also granted by the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona and the Botanical Institute of Barcelona. He is academician of the Reial Academia de Medicina de Catalunya. He was awarded by the Ministry of Education and Science, by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and by the Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses. Moreover, he has published more than 200 scientific works (mostly about botanics), of history of medicine and of regional topics.