Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz

Who was Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz?

Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz was the court physician in the royal courts of Philip III and Philip IV. Antonio was the son of Alonzo de Santa Cruz, a famous Spanish cartographer, instrument maker and historian.

Antonio was also a university professor at the University of Valladolid and a clergyman. He was interested in lycanthropy, free will, and the role of love in causing madness. As an expert on mental illnesses, he was charged with treatment of Prince Carlos.

He published his father Alonzo's book Dignotio et cura affectuum melancholicorum about the diagnosis and treatment of melancholy posthumously in 1622. He published the first Spanish treatise on epilepsy in 1631, Praelections Valliosoletanae.

Some have suggested that Antonio was friendly with Miguel de Cervantes, given their mutual interests and similarities in the condition described in Cervantes' book El Licenciado Vidriera, and those in Antonio's book on melancholy.