University of Navarra professor Juan Antonio Paniagua passes away
Priest and professor of the History of Medicine, he was University Secretary of the University
Juan Antonio Paniagua (Artajona, 1920), Honorary Professor of the University of Navarra and priest since 1968, has died in Pamplona.
Professor Paniagua graduated in Medicine from the University of Valladolid in 1945, with award Extraordinary. During his student years he met St. Josemaría Escrivá and joined Opus Dei.
After graduating he obtained a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Medicine to extend programs of study abroad but, due to the closing of borders by the Second World War, he had to do the thesis in the laboratory of Pathology of Metabolism in Madrid. He received his doctorate with the maximum grade in 1948.
At that time he began his dedication to the History of Medicine, under the guidance of Professor Pedro Laín Entralgo (1908-2001), who had just obtained the only Chair in History of Medicine that existed in Spain. At his side he was secretary of essay of the first Spanish journal of the discipline and founder of the Spanish Society for the History of Medicine. It was this expert who encouraged him to study the figure and work of the physician Arnau de Vilanova (c.1240-1311), a field in which Juan Antonio achieved international prominence.
University and pastoral work
In 1956 he moved to Paris with a CSIC scholarship to study the manuscript tradition of the works of Arnau de Vilanova. There he took contact with European historians of medieval science who, after World War II, were building the discipline from new documentary instructions . Three years later he joined the Estudio General de Navarra as assistant to the Chair of General Pathology, collaborating with Dr. Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri. A year later he was appointed University Secretary of the University of Navarra, position which he held for seven years.
At the School of Medicine he taught for thirty years (1962-1992) History of Medicine and, between 1965 and 1972, Deontology; thus he contributed to the humanistic training of a large issue of doctors. He also taught History of Pharmacy from 1970 to 1992. In addition to the ordinary teaching , D. Juan Antonio turned his Chair at the University of Navarra into a place of training for historians of science. After his retirement, he continued to advise young researchers and to give lectures.
Between 1970 and 1990, Dr. Paniagua published the most relevant part of his scientific production, including the biography and critical edition of the aphoristic work of Arnau de Vilanova, as well as the edition of the Spanish version of the Regimen for the King of Aragon (James II). During this period he also headed the team of international researchers in charge of editing the work of Arnau de Vilanova together with Luis García Ballester (+) and Michael McVaugh.
In 1968, he added pastoral work to his university work; that summer he was ordained a priest and was put in charge, as President, of the University Chapel, which at that time was that of the Museum of Navarre. After a few years in Vitoria, he continued to attend to students, doctors, nurses and patients at Clínica Universidad de Navarra until his last illness. In addition to his work as a priest, he went every week to Library Services to keep up to date with the latest news in the History of Medicine.