Ver y conocer a Dios en el mundo naturallos intereses científicos de San Juan de Ribera (1532-1611) y su colección pictórica

Abstract

This article analyzes the scientific collection owned by San Juan de Ribera, Archbishop of Valencia between 1569 and 1611. Rather than adopt a traditional perspective that treats the possession of scientific and artistic objects as a mere catalog, this article considers the phenomenon of Ribera’s collecting as an intellectual construction and ideological discourse. In this way, it combines an examination of Ribera’s 1611  post mortem  inventory, his personal library and the 1615 post mortem auctions of his possessions with quotes of Fray Luis de Granada’s Introducción del símbolo de la fe (1583). This catechetical treatise is fundamental for understanding that San Juan de Ribera’s objects of naturalia and artificialia, as well as his genre paintings, could accommodate religious readings about God’s creative activity, reflecting his goodness and wisdom in the natural world.