George Baker: translator of Aparicio de Zubia's pamphlet on the "Oleum Magistrale".

The present article is concerned with identifying the Morisco healer Aparicio de Zubia as the author of a pamphlet on the "Oleum Magistrale" which, in 1566, was published at the instance of the Spanish government after Zubia's death and which, in 1574, was translated by the Elizabethan surgeon George Baker from what seems to have been a French intermediary version. I shall not presume to enter into a discussion about the oil's medicinal virtues, leaving it to scholars interested in the history of chemical medicine to pursue the subject. But besides identifying Zubia as a medical practitioner advocating chemical therapy in a pamphlet published under Baker's name in England, I shall venture to throw some light on Baker as a surgeon who embraced alternative medicine without abandoning traditional science.' *Dr Gustav Ungerer, Englisches Seminar, Universitat Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Gesellschaftsstrasse 6, Switzerland.