The Mondones petroleum case (Valladolid, 1585)

A documented Castilian lawsuit in which the medical claims of an imported oil were put to a court. An Italian merchant selling petroleum as medicine was ordered to stop on the ground that it was "fake and false"; two university physicians were appointed to examine the substance and reported on it in writing. The case shows early modern Spain running a real adjudicative procedure over a drug — and shows exactly what that procedure tested, which was the printed authorities and not the patients.