AN EPIC HISTORY OF PHARMACY: PHARMACY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

What really sets humankind apart from other species is our fondness of drugs. This vale of tears, full of plants and animals to tame, was the breeding ground for cultures and civilizations with a penchant for developing the noble art of pharmacy. The Neolithic revolution marked the coming into being and development of great states and empires, with the consequential increase in headaches. But that was no big deal, since shamans, witch doctors, physicians, priests, apothecaries and/or sorcerers sought, and sometimes found, remedies to relieve migraines and a wide range of ailments. After a taste of this Epic History of Pharmacy you’ll doubtlessly feel better. You are holding a fully legal dose for a relaxing but at the same time frenzied trip: from the wild prehistoric Eden garden to the marmoreal and massive Rome, going through Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, America, Persia and Greece. And all of it visually administered, in the form of a carefully formulated ointment of literary panacea seasoned with humour-coated pills of compressed cartoons.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS…

LUIS MARCOS NOGALES

Born in Salamanca and known for his lively and restless spirit, he graduated in Pharmacy by the University of Salamanca and completed the Pharmaceutical and Parapharmaceutical Master’s Degree offered by the Centre for Higher Studies of the Pharmaceutical Industries in Madrid. There he worked for years at thedepartments of Production and Quality Assurance of a pharmaceutical laboratory. He is a scientific advisor to the board of directors of the Spanish Association of Compounding Pharmacists and, as could not beotherwise, he himself is a pharmacist. More to the point, currently in the monumental city of Salamanca, he is a specialist in pharmaceutical compounding, a three-generation family tradition. Apart from his job, his great passion is history, and he is most at ease when both converge: his face lights up with glee, his hair stands on end and he prances around joyfully planning to write books and the like. He can be really exasperating.

He also loves movies and comic books. He hates sardines.

ÍÑIGO ANSOLA BÁRCENA

Cartoonist from Laredo, known as “Ansola”. Jokes bore him and he finds drawing tiresome. However, he can think of no other way to provide for his large family. He has been drawing a daily cartoon on current political and social issues for the newspaper “El Diario Montañés” since 2008, also prolifically drawing different types of pictures, and even comic books. Speaking of comic books, in 2011 he published “Luna Hiena”, where he gives his version of the Cantabrian Wars: the invasion of ancient Cantabria by the famous legions of Octavius Augustus, first emperor of Rome, and their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. He dreams of it being published in English, and of Mary Beard sending him and e-mail asking for a signed copy. He also dreams of the translation being done by Susana González Knowles, an expert at interpreting his dreadful jokes.

He hates movies and comic books. He loves sardines.