De La Sagra Research Articles

‘A Web of Complex Relations’: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Botany and Sab (1841)

This article offers an ecocritical reading of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s novel Sab (1841) informed by the religious, magical beliefs attributed to the wilderness or ‘monte’ as recorded in Lydia Cabrera’s classic ethnography, El Monte (1954). It goes on to contextualize the novel within the botanical studies published in Cuba in the 1820s and 1830s, notably the work of Alexander von Humboldt and Ramón de la Sagra, to which Avellaneda may have had access through the Sociedad de los Amigos del País in Puerto Príncipe.

Linaria sagrensis (Plantaginaceae), a new high mountain species from the SE Iberian Peninsula

Linaria sagrensis, from the south‐eastern Iberian Peninsula, is here newly described, illustrated, and compared with its morphologically closest relatives from L. sect. Supinae: L. pruinosa, L. nevadensis, L. glacialis and L. alpina subsp. alpina. The species is characterized by being perennial, entirely glandular‐hairy, with inflorescence dense and corymbiform, and calyx lobes unequal; corolla small, pinkish‐violet, with conspicuous dark veins and yellow to orangish palate, and spur shorter than the rest of the corolla; capsule globose, glandular‐hairy at apex; seeds large, black to dark greyish, with apparently smooth disc, though with very few and scattered small tubercles, and light‐grey wing. Linaria sagrensis is endemic to Sierra de la Sagra (N Granada province, Spain), growing in calcareous screes of the Mediterranean high mountain. Additionally, L. aeruginea subsp. pruinosa is here raised to species rank, L. pruinosa, and therefore a new combination is proposed. The value of seed characters in Linaria taxonomy is discussed based on newly discovered infraspecific variability in several taxa.

The First Facsimile Collections and the Parisian Origins of the History of Cartography

ABSTRACT Map historians have long thought that their field of study has an exceptional origin, springing into life fully-fledged in Paris in the 1840s when the Frenchman Edme-François Jomard and the Portuguese visconde de Santarém created large collections of facsimiles of medieval and Renaissance maps and then squabbled over credit for creating the ‘history of cartography’. This essay revises the story by adducing three earlier and much smaller collections by the Prussian Alexander von Humboldt, the Spaniard Ramón de la Sagra, and the French couple Xavier and Adèle Hommaire de Hell. The existence of these collections has hitherto been obscured by common bibliographical practices. This essay analyses the structure and design of all these facsimile collections and reads them in concert with their accompanying texts to reveal the emergence in Paris in the 1830s and 1840s of a scholarly concern for the comparative study of early maps. Together, these scholars wove existing threads of scholarship in the history of geography and discovery into a new field of study. The history of cartography thus possesses a communal and Western European rather than an idiosyncratic and national origin.

Truth in numbers? Emancipation, race, and federal census statistics in the debates over Black mental health in the United States, 1840–1900

To the keen observer of American political and medical history, a disturbing set of debates surrounded the sanity of free Black residents of the United States of America after the publication of the controversial 1840 census returns on race and insanity. This article analyzes how the census became a battlefield where physicians and other commentators fought over—and thus shaped—various political meanings of Black insanity before and after the American Civil War, up until the 1890s, as the South underwent a massive political and social transformation, from slavery to emancipation. It also highlights the arguments raised by authors such as James McCune Smith and Ramón de la Sagra who attempted to disprove the returns shortly after their publication, and whose arguments contributed to efforts to combat scientific racism.

En defensa de las “santas vivas” y la palabra pública de las mujeres: el Conorte de Juana de la Cruz y la genealogía femenina

El Conorte, compuesto en el primer tercio del siglo xvi por las franciscanas de Santa Maria de la Cruz de Cubas de la Sagra, defiende la predicacion carismatica de su abadesa y santa viva, Juana de la Cruz, frente a sus oponentes. Con este trabajo pretendo mostrar que estas autoras elaboraron ademas una teoria de autorizacion social de la palabra publica y el magisterio femeninos y defendieron a un colectivo: las visionarias profetisas y el modelo funcional en que se incardinaban como “santas vivas”. Construida sobre la genealogia femenina, muestra la conciencia sexuada, social y feminista de las autoras, y su afan de incidencia social.

Una incursión en los orígenes. La inserción de Ramón de la Sagra en la sociología española

Este texto recoge el debate sobre el momento inaugural de la Sociología española. Se plantea el problema de los inicios de la disciplina, realizando un recorrido histórico que revisa el estado de la cuestión, prestando atención a una figura en particular, la de Ramón de la Sagra. A través de una profunda revisión bibliográfica, se perfila, en palabras de los investigadores, la importancia de este autor en los orígenes de estos estudios en España.

Approach to the trace element geochemistry of non-marine sepiolite deposits: Influence of the sedimentary environment (Madrid Basin, Spain)

The trace element geochemistry of sepiolite-rich beds from five lithological sections in the Neogene Madrid Basin was analysed. The samples were collected from representative deposits including alluvial fan (Vicálvaro, Cabañas de la Sagra), palustrine (Cerro de los Batallones) and mudflat (Esquivias, Magán) facies. The mineralogical composition of the samples point out the abundant content of sepiolite, commonly higher than 95%, with variable content of quartz, feldspars, calcite, palygorskite and/or Mg-smectite. The sepiolite occurs as laminated, massive and brecciated facies, often with intraclasts of similar sepiolite composition. The geochemical results indicate that all the trace elements analysed are mostly depleted with respect to the UCC standard (Upper Crust Composition), especially REE (<0.4). The higher depletion was observed in sepiolites from mudflat facies (V and U content are an exception). Cluster analysis of geochemical data corroborates the differences between mudflat sepiolites and those from palustrine and alluvial-related facies. The normalization of REE with chondrite allows clear differentiation between the sepiolites associated with alluvial fan facies from all the remaining samples. On the other hand, the La/Sc ratio against Th/Co ratio indicates provenance from felsic rocks. High content in F (>4000μg/g) and low content of Li (20–180μg/g) is remarkable, allowing to separate samples of sepiolite formed in alluvial fan environments from those of mudflat and palustrine deposits. The geochemical complexity observed in the sepiolites was closely related to the specific mechanisms of formation under different environmental conditions.

Submicron particle concentration and particle size distribution at urban and rural areas in the surroundings of building materials industries in central Spain

Particle number concentrations and size distribution of atmospheric aerosol particles were measured in the range 6560nm by a fast mobility particle sizer in Toledo, Spain, and in the outskirts of nearby small villages within the area of influence of a cement factory, quarries and ceramic industries. Several measurement campaigns have been carried out in different days in Toledo (April, May and July) and one campaign in “Comarca de la Sagra” in July. In each campaign, measurement of 10–15 min has been achieved in several different points. In addition, a campaign of continuous measurements has been carried out in Toledo. The average number concentration in Toledo are consistent with other urban measurements, with lower values during the night–time ranging from 3×103 to 1×104 particles/cm3 and higher average levels during daytime ranging from 5×103 to 4×104 particles/cm3 depending on the measurement site and date. The measurement sites show similar background profiles of the particle size distributions with two clear particle modes centered in the sizes ranges 10–15 and 40–50nm. Road traffic is postulated as the main source of submicron particles, giving lower level of particles during the summer time. Results from continuous measurements have been analyzed. On the other hand, the low total concentrations obtained in the “Comarca de la Sagra” campaign, ranging from 1.5×103 to 3.1×103 particles/cm3 with an average value of 2.3×103 particles/cm3, show a negligible influence of the different building materials industries on the total submicron particle concentration in the surrounding area and in Toledo.

Caracterización y estado de conservación de vidrios tardorromanos del Museo Arqueológico Regional de Madrid procedentes de las necrópolis de Cubas de la Sagra

A set of late Roman glasses found in the graveyards of Cubas de la Sagra and nowadays conserved in the Archaeological Regional Museum of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) has been characterized. The glass set is from the Camino de Santa Juana site, located in the South of the Community of Madrid. The objectives were, on the one hand, to determine the chemical composition and the chromophores responsible for the the glasses colour, and, on the other hand, to evaluate their conservation state to select the best preventive conservation strategy for their deposit or exhibition in the museum. For the first part, 14 samples from both graveyards were analyzed. For the second part, samples of soil near the glasses were studied to determine pH, mineralogical phases and influence on the glasses deterioration. The research was carried out by using conventional techniques: binocular microscope, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy equiped with X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry and visible spectrophotometry. The results allowed the glasses archaeometric contextualization in the whole late Roman ensemble of glasses of the Iberian Peninsula that have been analyzed by X-ray fluorescence and X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry up to now.

Actividades extraliterarias de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

Following a biographical introduction, this article provides a summary of the documents I have published on Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda over the last years. The documents are located in Madrid and they complete those listed by Cotarelo (1930) in the past. The interest of Avellaneda in applied sciences and her friendship with scientist Ramón de La Sagra and her neighbour and writer Eloisa Gattebled are further topics covered.

Una pintura atribuible a Antonio de Pereda en Villaseca de la Sagra (Toledo)

This study presents the painting The Virgin Appearing to Saint Bernard, located in the church of Ntra. Sra. de los Peligros in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra (Toledo), documented in 1650, the style of which comes close to that of the Madrid Baroque artist Antonio de Pereda.

SOCIEDAD BURGUESA Y EDUCACIÓN EN EL SIGLO XIX: LA PERSPECTIVA REFORMISTA TRANSNACIONAL DE RAMÓN DE LA SAGRA Y LA EDUCACIÓN EN ESPAÑA

INTRODUCTION. Under the pressure of the economic and political transformations that were taking place and with the settlement of the liberal and bourgeois State model, new social problems appeared. The imbalances between the different social classes became more evident, raising questions about its resolution. This being so, the thought that sought to find a new perspective to these developments was renewed; especially a new moral basis more adequate for human actions, and for this reason education had an essential role. The Saint-Simonian and proto-socialist orientation on the one hand, and the Pestalozzianum educational empiricist orientation, although founded on Kantian idealism, on the other, seemed to be for many the right course for social reform. Both orientations had opponents. But they also found some important resonances in Spain, like for example from Ramon de la Sagra, a moderate liberal who believed in the power of popular education, which he was constantly proposing while reporting on and advising about the reforms and school initiatives he observed in the U.S.A. (1835), or on his pedagogical travels in France, Belgium and The Netherlands. METHOD. An examination of his texts and innovative lectures. RESULTS. The analysis reveals that, beyond the well-informed know how that Pablo Montesino incorporated from England, other transnational sources of information about educational politics were accessible to the Spanish reformists. DISCUSSION. If we follow the steps of the curious and expertly observant traveller, we will acquire a much better understanding of some of the more relevant educational problems and developments of the XIXth century.

Sebastián de Benavente y la orden franciscana

Sebastián de Benavente, altarpieces´ architect, worked continually for Franciscans, at least between the years 1653 and 1667. He made fundamental works of the order for convents in Madrid, Alcalá de Henares (San Diego chapel), Toledo and Valladolid. We have discovered the Puebla de Montalbán altarpiece, which it was thought as missing, and we contribute the contract for the altarpiece of Santa Clara in Madrid, which is useful to the reconstruction of the original aspect. Also we examine the works that he made and adscribe some of them as those in Santa María de la Cruz in Cubas de la Sagra.

Ramón de la Sagra. Un protosocialista hispano ante el desarrollo educativo. Lecturas y precisiones

The present contribution analyses the figure of the ideologist, social theoretician, economist and international comparative education scholar, Ramon de la Sagra (1798-1871). Originally from Galicia and having begun his university studies in Santiago, he soon moved to Madrid, where he would become one of the founders of the Ateneo. University professor and naturalist in Havana. Observer of social reforms in the U.S.A. (1835). Later, he travelled through Europe comparing various attempts at social reform. Writer. Scholar and propagator, as well as a keen attender at intellectual salons, alongside Arhens, Cousin, Hippolyte Colins, Engels, or Proudhon (with whom he was involved in a variety of social undertakings in Paris between 1848 to 1849), as well as other well-known characters in the field of political economy and of social theory. Liberal Spanish member of parliament. Promoter of the first infant schools in Madrid (1839-1842). An idealistic reformer: an attractive and complex figure. One of the most outstanding Spanish intellectuals of the 19th Century but until now largely unknown.

Una especie nueva de &lt;i&gt;Mylabris&lt;/i&gt; Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera, Meloidae) del Sureste de la Península Ibérica

A new species of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera, Meloidae) from the southeastern region of the Iberian Peninsula We describe a new species of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, from the mountains of the southeastern region of the Iberian Peninsula (Macizo de la Sagra and surrounding areas, Province of Granada, Spain). Mylabris deferreri sp. nov. is included within the subgenus Micrabris based on the presence of a bell-shaped pronotum, smoothly convex, without anterior transverse depression; black tegument; mesosternal plate with a marked smooth and shiny central “shield”; aedeagus with the median lobe showing two subequal ventral hooks, clearly separated from the apex. Within the Iberian fauna of Micrabris, Mylabris deferreri is phenetically similar to M. varians, M. dejeani, and M. platai. These four species are characterized by a particular elytral basis, displaying very dense and fine shallow punctures, little marked, covered by very short and dense straight pubescence. Mylabris varians is likely related to M. deferreri, both sharing a similar structure of the male anterior tibiae. These two taxa differ by the shape of the male genitalia and the elytral coloration pattern. Mylabris deferreri is one of the three species of the tribe Mylabrini endemic to relatively high elevation areas of the Betic Mountains of southern Spain.

The New World Species of Cynometra

Linnaeus established the genus Cynometra in 1741 (Act. Soc. Upsal. 79) and included it in the first edition of Species Plantarum (p. 382. 1753), describing two species from India: C. cauliflora and C. ramiflora. Vogel described the first New World species: C. americana in 1836 (in Linnaea 10:602). In 1840 Bentham (Jour. Bot. 2:74) established the tribes Cynometreae and Amherstieae, including three species of Cynometra from tropical America: C. bauhiniaefolia, C. marginata, and C. crassifolia; his subsequent treatment of the genus in Martius Flora Brasiliensis (1876) is classical. The well-known Cynometra spruceana was described therein. Four years before Bentham's initial work, Tulasne described two species from French Guiana: C. hostmanniana and C. parvifolia (Arch. Mus. Nat. Paris 4:181. 1844). With the exception of C. cubensis described by de la Sagra (Hist. Cub. 10:233. 1845), all the remaining New World species appeared after 1895. Recently Leonard (1951) presented an excellent history of the African species. In this same paper he made an important contribution to the taxonomy of the African cynometras when he distributed some 60 species, classically assigned to the genus, among 11 genera. Those species with the stipe of the pistil free in the receptacle-cup were placed in Cynometra in limited sense and in Gilletiodendron.

Notes on the Sailfish, Istiophorus americanus (Lacepede), in the Western Gulf of Mexico

PISO (1648), in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, gives a rough plate that it is possible to identify as the Atlantic sailfish, Istiophorus americanus Lacepede. This is accompanied by a short description in which the author, Marcgrave, names it as Guebucu brasiliensibus. There was no systematic description of any of the genus, however, until Broussonet (1786), working from an East Indian specimen in the British Museum, described it as Scomber gladius, recognizing its affiliation with the mackerels. Later Lacepede (1803) established the genus Histiophorus for the reception of the species. Cuvier and Valenciennes (1831) ignored Broussonet, and assigned the name Histiophorus indicus to the British Museum specimen, and established another species, Histiophorus americanus, on the strength of Marcgrave's description, thus differentiating the American form from that of the Indian Ocean. None of these authors, with the exception of Marcgrave, had opportunity of examining the Brazilian specimen; yet it seems to have been conceded from the description given by him that this fish deserved separation from the Oriental fish of the genus. However, Gunther discarded the name americanus and assumed the Atlantic fish to be identical with that of the Indian Ocean. Most of the confusion originated through lack of sufficient material, and though De La Sagra (1853) and Poey (1858) both stated that the fish was to be found about Cuba, and Schomburgk (1848) included it in his list of fishes of Barbadoes, it was not until 1872 that any modern ichthyologist had opportunity to examine a specimen. In that year a skeleton and plaster cast from a fish taken at Newport, Rhode Island, were presented to the National Museum. In March, 1878, 2 more were taken from a boat running between Savannah, Georgia, and Indian River, Florida, and were brought to the Savannah market, where they occasioned much comment. In 1873 a mutilated specimen was brought from Key West to New York. This constitutes the earlier history of the species, as given by Goode (1880). Little was known about the fish for a good many years more, and it was not until the beginning of its popularity as a game fish that further information was acquired. The greatly increased interest in this type of angling has made available much data, particularly with regard to its range and seasons of occurrence. The following material, compiled on the Texas coast, has not been, as far as can be determined, recorded prior to this note. Combined with it is some material from the waters to the east and to the south.1

XXVI. Researches on the foraminifera

78. History .—The interesting group of organisms belonging to this type seems to have early attracted notice, probably on account of the great abundance in which it presents itself on the sands of many of the West Indian shores. Three species are described and figured by Fichtel and Moll, under the names of Nautilus orbiculus , N. angulatus , and N. aduncus . Lamarck, however, in his first systematic treatise, separated them from Nautilus , and raised them to the rank of an independent genus, to which he gave the name of Orbiculina ; and he also changed two of the specific names, the three standing respectively as O. numismalis , O. angulata and O. uncinata . By Denys de Montfort, these species were raised to the rank of independent genera, under the names of Helenis , Archaias , and Ilotes ; but these genera have not been adopted by any other systematist. M. d’Orbigny, in his first classification of the Foraminifera, not merely adopted Lamarck’s generic designation, but affirmed that the three reputed species were really nothing else than one and the same organism in different phases of growth, O. angulata being the youngest, O. numismalis the next in age, and O. uncinata the adult. He arrived at this result, of the truth of which I am myself well assured, by the comparison of a great number of specimens, —a process which it would have been well for science if he had more constantly adopted. The name of the adult form should of course stand as that of the species; but the organism in question is more commonly known under the designation Orbiculina adunca , which seems to have been conferred upon it by M. Deslongschamps. 79. A considerable number of figures of this species are given by M. d’Orbigny in his treatise on the Foraminifera of Cuba, which forms part of the great work of M. Ramon de la Sagra on the Natural History, &amp;c. of that island. These figures, however, serve only to give a general idea of the diversities of external conformation which had presented themselves to him; and notwithstanding their number and variety, they do not include some of the most important among the protean shapes of these bodies, nor do they throw any light upon their internal structure.