Curious Knowledge

This essay examines Diego Valadés, a Franciscan missionary, as a Renaissance “curioso” whose life and work were driven by insatiable inquisitiveness and a desire to acquire knowledge. Through his Rhetorica Christiana, Valadés, much like collectors of cabinets of curiosities and Wunderkammer, celebrated the richness of indigenous cultures in New Spain. Following the Renaissance ethos of curiosity-driven exploration that fostered a global pursuit of knowledge, Valadés’ work functions as a textual cabinet of curiosity, reflecting his experiences in New Spain and incorporating indigenous flora, fauna, and cultural elements unfamiliar to European readers. His text, originally intended to be titled Suma de todas las ciencias, embodies a new and modern knowledge system that is encyclopedic and proto-scientific in nature. However, Valadés’ intellectual pursuits were constrained by the conservative court of Philip II, where intellectual freedom often faced scrutiny. His work bridges the Renaissance’s intellectual curiosity with mnemonic practices, illustrating how collecting and memory techniques were intertwined in expanding the global understanding of the natural world

Art · Curiosity · Visual arts · Early Modern Spanish Literature · Early Modern Women Writers · Psychology · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies · Social Psychology