Joyfull Newes Out of the New Found World was originally written as three works under the title Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales by Dr. Nicolas Monardes of Seville between 1565 and 1574. In 1577, John Frampton translated it into English and made up this new title. Joyfull Newes ignited tobacco’s spread across Europe by saying it could cure a huge number of diseases. Monardes’ medical claims about this incredible new plant were echoed by physicians for over a century. This book was deeply influential in stoking tobacco’s popularity in Europe. You’ll find reference to it in almost every decent account of tobacco’s spread across the world.
Monardes never went to the Americas; he learned the information in his book from those who had. The book explores many kinds of herbs, oils, plants, and animals that were found in the New World, including tobacco.
Tobacco was originally brought to Spain to be enjoyed in gardens rather than used for the “medicinal virtues with it hath”, according to Monardes’ account. But its medicinal use was greater than its ornamental use. When used in one form or another (smoked, drunk, powdered, chewed, putting leaves on the skin, mixed with any number of other ingredients), Monardes said tobacco could cure over 60 ailments, including:
- Griefs of the head
- Any manner of grief that is in the body
- Bad breath
- Shortness of breath / asthma
- Kills worms of all kinds
- “The evil of the mother”, which seems to mean pains in labor
- Toothache
- Venomous wounds
- New wounds
- Old sores
- Rotten and cankered wounds
- Dropsy
- And many more!
Several accounts are given of diseases that were cured by the use of tobacco. Here’s a particularly fun one from page 88 – I’ve taken some liberties to make it more readable for a modern audience:
I saw a man that had certain old sores in his nose, whereby he did cast out from him much matter, which did rot and canker inward, and I called him to take at his nose the juice of this Tabaco, and so he did; and…he cast out from him more than twenty little worms, and afterward a few more, until he remained clean of them, and…he was healed of the sores.
This is an absolutely fascinating book, both because of its historical importance and because of the interesting content. Who wouldn’t want to read about putting tobacco juice into the nose and expelling more than twenty worms?
A digitized copy of Joyfull Newes Out of the New Found World can be found in FSU’s Digital Repository. Monardes’ account of tobacco begins on page 77.