Palace of Íñiguez de Medrano

General interior view of the entrance hall at the Palace of Íñiguez de Medrano in Sangüesa

The Palace of the Íñiguez de Medrano family in Sangüesa is located on Enrique de Labrit street (former Población) nº 31, at the intersection with Calle Caballeros.^[7] In the foreground, a double arch at the mouth of the staircase with a central column, decorated with plasterwork. The palace was featured in a printed record of the "Iconographic Museum of the Kingdom" promoted by the Provincial Council. The property is also known as Casa Estudio, for having housed the city's Grammar Study. This 16th-century building has a compact appearance. The ground floor features meticulous ashlar stonework with an lintel doorway and two large windows. The rest of the building is made of brick, adorned with wooden eaves with vegetal motifs, and a gable on the corner.^[8]

Sérène de Montauban

When his first wife died, Julián Iñiguez de Medrano went to France, where he was part of the court of the kings of Navarre, Enrique II and Margarita de Angoulême. There is a marriage contract between Julián Íñiguez de Medrano and Sérène de Montauban, dated July 18, 1550; but it seems that Sérène was his second wife. It was precisely because of his place at court, thanks to the intercession of the queen, that Medrano managed to marry Sérène de Montauban, daughter of Bertrand de Montauban, lord of Flourès, Marciac, Riscle and Maumusson.

Lords of Maumusson

Through this marriage, Julián Íñiguez de Medrano became lord of Maumusson, a title that passed to his son Pierre Íñiguez de Medrano y Montauban.^[4]

This would mark the beginning of Julian Íñiguez de Medrano's lineage in Gascony. In southern France, they would become abundant and remain loyal to the Kings of France and Navarre, particularly during the 16th century Spanish Conquest of Navarre.^[9]

An Ode to Julián Íñiguez de Medrano, Knight of Navarre

An Ode to Monsieur Julian Íñiguez de Medrano:

Thus, warlike Cantabria, the glory of Medrano, you reveal, faithful repository of so many labors, all the monuments of your accomplished talent. Expand the riches that fertile Iberia, or monstrous Africa, mother of wonders, or the fields of Italy and Sicily, have offered you. Whatever finally, after a thousand dangers, traversing so many peoples and cities, you, Jule, wise in exploration, bring back unharmed to your homeland. If fate, not civil madness, and force would grant me leisure: if my lyre and the numerous Muse could avail anything in song, I would not allow these many labors of yours to yield to oblivion; nor would any age silence your name, with envy's poison set aside. Not because you possess Indian ivory or the gem-studded shell from the red shore, or veins of fleeing gold hewn from the depths of the earth. May you live dear to noble leaders, the blood of noble ancestors, the Medrano lineage. Not that these things, exposed to the whims of fortune, as my lyre might sing, but rather that your virtue, which is the sanctuary of a pure mind, may be ennobled. For this alone escapes the final pyre every year, while age, rain, fire, and the violent East threaten an end to the others. This, indeed, is the true reward of genuine praise, a fitting recompense for good talents, which afterward, like winged Cosios, will carry you on high, unafraid of being loosed.

— N. L. B., "An Ode to Julián Íñiguez de Medrano, Knight of Navarre," La Silva Curiosa (1583)^[13]

Testimony of Ja. Auratus, the Royal Poet

"What various peoples and various cities, the great man of former days, an Ithacan, had seen. But still, he brought nothing back to his paternal home: While plundering others, he robs the sea of its riches. Until, at last, he reached the welcoming company of Alcinous: From there, the guest brought back various treasures to his home. Behold, a new Ulysses, like Julius Medrano, From various peoples, from diverse seas, He brings back every kind of gem and every kind of gold: A treasure as great as that of Ulysses, never before seen.

— Ja. Auratus, the Poet of Royalty." La Silva Curiosa (1583)^[14]

Testimony of Benito Selyagio, Hermit of Salamanca

"To senor Medrano: You, who, giving your life to glory, have seen Africa, India, and Italy, and without paling in the midst of dangers, practiced among foreign peoples; You, who have been able to see, over the waters of the Nabataean River, fair Aurora rise in her chariot, and sailing against the North wind, have seen the shore where the sun sets, always inhaling, according to Fortune's whims, the misty air of Neptune's waves; You have not in vain deserved the honor that one wishes to give to immortality, this empty honor, this confused glory that deceives the common people for a time, but by labor elevating your renown, you have engraved your name throughout the world, teaching it to remote islands, giving it to sandy fields, to sea gods, to the inhabitants of the waves, and work, the true father of your destiny, has brought it back to the safe shore where your virtue withdraws from the storm. You have not limited the desire of the beautiful season within the confines of your house in Vendo, your sweet homeland, But as one sees a bee that sifts from meadow to meadow, from garden to garden, from rose to rose, from violet to thyme, a thousand sweetnesses, then returning lightly to its hive, bringing homemaker the sweet gifts of the honeycomb to preserve, and the wax, and the honey; Thus, running, hungry to know the rarities that nature brings forth, you were the first to see the Spanish people, the Portuguese, and both poles; wisely making your profit and glory from what the eye of your soul made you believe: and bringing back labor to our eyes of a hundred treasures, drawn from a thousand places, But what use is it that my pen honors you? you, known to both Auroras, have recognized so many diverse peoples, and surpassed the course of my verses. Your eye, first, discussed things that your learned mind had skillfully unfolded; in seeing them, your eye had pleasure, and your soul chose the most beautiful: which today presents to us the work in this tableau, which we have as a pledge of a longer work, where you outline the features in six discourses, of a hundred thousand secrets."

— Benito Selyagio, Hermit of Salamanca, To Julio Íñiguez de Medrano. La Silva Curiosa (1583)^[15]

OMEN OR PROPHECY DRAWN FROM THE FORTUNE AND LIFE OF THE SAID JULIO, BY THE SAME HERMIT, WITH THE ANAGRAM OF HIS NAME. PROPHECY:

"After Julio has crossed land and sea with toil and suffering, Weary of seeing foreign lands, he will return and find rest, And he shall be acclaimed."

— Benito Selyagio, Hermit of Salamanca, To Julio Íñiguez de Medrano. La Silva Curiosa (1583)^[15]

Testimony of de la Morinière

"ABOUT THE CURIOUS FOREST OF DE MEDRANO: Let whoever wishes boast about Apelles, Zeuxis, Lisippus, and those closer to our time, Raphael, Michelangelo, and so many experts in their proportions, shading, and variegation. As for me, I value more the tableau of nature, of manners, of teachings, and of the entire universe, which MEDRANO encloses in his beautiful verses, taking the name and figure from a forest. Their portraits only affect our eyes, and hold our idle minds suspended, perishable otherwise and of no memory. But this speaking tableau is much better adorned and cannot be stifled by time in this way, engraving its beautiful art and glory in minds". - Mr. de la Morinière

Republished in 1608 by Cesar Oudin

La Silva Curiosa by Julian Iniguez de Medrano (republished in 1608 by César Oudin)

In the "Rares" room of the Biblioteca Nacional, in Madrid, there are two copies of the two editions of La Silva Curiosa.^[4] The second edition of La Silva Curiosa by Julian Iniguez de Medrano (1583) republished in Paris in the year 1608, "corrected in this new edition and improved for readability by César Oudin,"^[17] whose main novelty was the inclusion of Cervantes's Novel of the Curious Impertinent. The main novelty here lies in the inclusion of Cervantes' "Novela del curioso impertinente" (Novel of the Inquisitive Impertinent) without any indication of authorship, which led some to believe that this short story was written by Medrano.^[4]

This edition is of interest to Cervantes collectors and scholars as it contains an early printing of his Novela del Curioso Impertinente, a story told in Don Quixote, and first published in 1605.^[18] It is the final story to appear in this volume of La Silva Curiosa, beginning at page 274. Don Quixote was written when Don Miguel de Cervantes ended up imprisoned in the Cueva de Medrano, located in the centre of the town of Argamasilla de Alba. The place can still be visited nowadays, and it is where, undoubtedly, Don Quixote de la Mancha started to be written.^[19]

Poems of Praise dedicated to Queen Margaret de Valois

Marguerite de Valois

It was Queen Marguerite de Valois, eager to read texts in Spanish that commissioned Medrano to write La silva curiosa, the work that she would pass on to posterity. The well-known sonnets or poems of praise by Julian Iñiguez de Medrano, both in Latin and in French, and two octaves, are dedicated to Queen Marguerite de Valois:^[4]

"I, Most High and Serene Lady (being a native of Navarre and recognizing that the greater part of the honor, being, and fortune I possess, next to God, springs and proceeds from Your Majesty as the true source of my happiness and life), have found this first and tender flower of my labors among the thorns of my sorrows and toils. I removed it from among them, and not knowing anyone who deserves it as much, nor to whom I owe it, I present it to Your Majesty (...) If in this first book Your Majesty enjoys the flowers, in the subsequent ones, you will savor the delicious fruit of the rarest and most curious secrets of nature that I have been able to learn and gather from Spain, the Indies, and my interactions with Italians and Portuguese. Since I have discovered and acquired them with curiosity and labor, I have no doubt that Your Majesty, recognizing my goodwill, will favor them with your attention (...) From this Hermitage in the Bois de Vincennes, on this day of Saint Paul, the twenty-fifth of January, in the year 1583. I kiss the Royal feet of Your Majesty, your most obedient servant, vassal, and subject, Julio Iñiguez de Medrano."^[20]

Summary of La Silva Curiosa

La Silva Curiosa is a heteroclite miscellany, in which Medrano manifests his penchant for epitaphs, more or less pastoral poetry, proverbs and tales of necromancers and ghosts, and builds a repertoire of entertaining curiosities. The Curious Silva includes very heterogeneous materials within it: sayings, sentences, stories, phrases, nicknames, proverbs, epitaphs, various anecdotes, famous quotes from authorities on various subjects; also poetic compositions and love stories and exotic adventures. Everything is mixed in a motley disorder, already suggested by Silva 's own title.

Julián's stated purpose, as explained in the "Table of the Seven Books of the Silva by Julio Iñiguez de Medrano," was to write seven treatises on different subjects, but Julián only gave the first one to the press, the content of which is summarised in these words: "The first deals with the following subjects: different from many recreational and beneficial things, such as the so-called meanings, letters and short words of Love, and it also contains the most beautiful proverbs, sayings and delicate sentiments that the author has been able to draw and learn among Spaniards, along with many others that the same author has written. Compound. And thou shalt find in him many gentle and funny tales, and some curious epitaphs, found in various lands by Julius himself"^[4]

After the epistle of "Julio Iñiguez de Medrano, Navarrese, the Serenísima Reina y Señora," follows a "Table Two of the names of the authors that Julio alleges, with whose authority, together with his experience, he confirms and proves that his work is most true and clean of all suspicion in all things that deal with the hidden secrets of nature." The secrets of nature have a significant presence in the work. Medrano intends to record these secrets in the seventh book.^[21]

Furthermore, for the remaining six books, all of them in some way deal with the properties or secrets of nature. The Matter of the remaining projected books:

• The second book deals with the nature of herbs and plants and their rarest, proven, and true virtues.
• The third book discusses the properties and virtues of precious stones and the benefits that can be derived from them, chosen through experience.
• The fourth book teaches the properties, nature, and virtues of many terrestrial animals and reveals many proven secrets obtained from them.
• The fifth book focuses on the properties and nature of fish and the benefits derived from them.
• The sixth book delves into the nature, virtues, and benefits of celestial and terrestrial birds, along with many proven and miraculous secrets.
• The seventh book deals with the secrets of nature.

The first book of La Silva Curiosa

"Potemus. Oh, very powerful, oh mightiest Bacchus... Through the same Bacchus who drinks and quenches through cups of cups." - Julián Íñiguez de Medrano, the prayer addressed to Bacchus

Enigmas, proverbs and games, natural observations of the ancients, curious and true ("for the most part", but not all) accumulate in these pages, where the reader will find examples of palindromes ("To the only Rome, Love to los solos sola"), enigmas ("Vidi hominem non hominem, qui percussit et non percussit avem non avem in arbore non arbore lapide non lapide": he sees a eunuch who strikes a bat perched on an elder tree —tree not quite tree— with a rough stone —limestone, porous, stone that is hardly stone...), goliardic parodies such as the prayer addressed to Bacchus ("Potemus. Oh valde potens, oh fortissime Bacche... Per eundem Bachum qui bibit et potat per pocula poculorum") , or short stories largely copied from Timoneda or Juan Aragonés. Julian Iñiguez de Medrano has a special fondness for epitaphs, of which he collects a good number of all varieties, in Spanish, French and Latin, many of them burlesque, such as that of poor Joan Vitulli, a seventeen-year-old boy, written reluctantly.

The first book of La Silva Curiosa ("The Curious Forest"), the only one still readable, is a set of letters, mottoes, sayings, proverbs, moral sentences, verses... Within this, is the "curious vergel" - this is how Medrano defines his work – various "such senses, sharp answers and very funny and recreational tales, with some curious epitaphs". These stories to which Medrano refers are called anecdotes, jokes, or chascarrillos (stories of few lines; some take up, exceptionally, a little more than a page or a page and a half).

One of Julián Íñiguez de Medrano's short-length narrative pieces in La Silva Curiosa had inspired Lope de Vega, as has been highlighted by critics: Julián Íñiguez de Medrano's comedy "Lo que ha de ser" is about two men who speak ill of women and promise never to marry;^[22] however, one of them falls in love and marries a widow, despite rumours about his bad reputation; at the end, the account ends with the indication that he too falls in love with a widow. He was deceived.

The book ends with some laudatory poems and other postliminary texts: "To the most invincible and powerful Caesar Henry III, King of France and Poland, Julius Medrano, Navarrese"; a few verses in Latin: "Ivlius de Medrano, in Lectorem Zoïlum"; the "Prophecy of the Cave of Salamanca for the present year, and then usque ad finem seculi," etc. The colophon is: "Deo volente, navigabo vimine. / O. DE. EC. SE. AS. ME. /End of this Silva's first book."^[23]

Testimony from Adrien Du Perron De Castera

The author of this translation, a certain de Castera, after dedicating it "To His Highness Monseigneur de Bouillon de la Tour d'Auvergne, Grand Chamberlain of France, Governor, and Lieutenant General of the Upper and Lower Regions and the Province of Auvergne, Commander of the Turenne Regiment," then goes on to explain the reasons justifying his translation work: "It is not the itch to be seen as an author that compels me to bring this little work to light; I have merely faithfully translated it from the Spanish of Julian Iniguez de Médrano. If there are some noteworthy features found in it, the glory is solely due to him. He flourished in the time of Queen Marguerite of Navarre, and this Princess, who knew how to value people of wit, believed she gained much by having him at her Court, where he was for several years both an ornament and a delight."^[3]

Furthermore, he provides interesting but difficult-to-verify information about Medrano's works: "He has two books to his name, with the titles 'Verger fertile' and 'Fóret curieuse,' both of which have had various editions, followed by general acclaim both in France and Spain". With this, it appears to confirm that Medrano carried out his project of writing his "Vergel curioso," to which he might have given the title "Vergel fértil," if at least De Castera's translation is faithful. The following clarification by de Castera states: "The latter has never been printed; I found the manuscript written by Médrane himself in the illustrious Abbey of Châtillon, where, in the intervals of leisure that more serious studies allowed me, I amused myself by adapting it in a French manner."^[3]

Adrien Du Perron De Castera relied on nothing less than an autographed manuscript by Medrano. the translator's remarks leave no doubt about his sincerity, as he emphasizes his role as a translator, even expressing doubts about the truth of Medrano's account after comparing this new story of Orcavella with the one already featured in the "Silva curiosa." Médrano presents this work as an absolute truth and asserts that in Colchis, presently called Mingrelia, he actually discovered the Tomb of the Enchantress Orcavella.

Colchis was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi

Discovery of Medrano's Greek Manuscript: Tomb of the Enchantress Orcavella

Indeed, there is a text where de Castera becomes the narrator of the events that happened to Medrano, who is thus described in the third person:

"Jule Iniguez de Médrano, a Navarrese gentleman, illustrious for his knowledge and celebrated for his travels throughout almost the entire world, recounts that one day, while sitting near Mount Caucasus on a grassy hill, he felt that the grass beneath him was sinking. He moved it aside and saw that it covered a hole the width of a man's body. This hole led to a staircase carved into the rock. Naturally curious, Médrano imagined that it might be an underground passage that perhaps contained some rarity or treasure, and he resolved to descend. To do so, he went to fetch a lantern and, accompanied by a faithful servant, he soon returned to the exact spot he had noticed."^[3]

This type of narration continues until the account of Medrano's discovery of a Greek manuscript. This manuscript, which according to De Castera, Medrano claims to have found in a tomb, and contains a confession, in the first person, of a witch named Orcavella, who, after briefly evoking her life as a fat collector, ogress, and vampire, relates the sad story of her love. From there, it could be a faithful translation of Medrano's text, as what precedes clearly corresponds to an account attributable to De Castera, drawing inspiration from the manuscript found in the Abbey of Châtillon and elements from the second part of the 'Silva curiosa.' Historians compared this introductory narrative with the data contained in the miscellany, and found that it coincides with elements in the introductory sections of the Silva and in the account of the journey to Santiago.^[3]

For example, Medrano's reputation as a great traveler: "Iniguez de Médrano, a Navarrese gentleman, illustrious for his knowledge and celebrated for his travels throughout almost the entire world..." His natural curiosity and his fondness for the secret and the rare: "... Médrano, naturally curious... Médrano wondered if he should push his curiosity further..." Also, in the continuation of this introductory narrative, there is a reference to the nocturnal birds that Medrano encountered on his journey to Santiago de Compostela when entering the cave of a necromancer, a servant of a holy hermit: "Scarcely had the light he was carrying dissipated the profound darkness that reigned in this cavern when a prodigious quantity of bats, owls, and other nocturnal birds, frightened by his presence, seemed to want to knock him down as they flew tumultuously around him..." Regarding the discovery of drawings on the columns supporting the spacious hall that Medrano reveals, it directly connects to the Navarrese gentleman's fondness for inscriptions, which he eagerly collects in the Silva curiosa.^[3]

Lords of Mauhic

Château de Mauhic (Mauhic Castle)

The Medrano family owned Château de Mauhic in the municipality of Loubédat.^[30] The Château de Mauhic is situated in the valleys of the Adour and Arros, and dates back to the 17th century.^[31] The Château de Mauhic has a rectangular main building flanked by two square towers. The Château de Mauhic, having belonged to the Médrano family, lords of Mauhic; the last lord Jean-Marie de Médrano-Mauhic was beheaded in 1793, for counter-revolutionary actions. Jean-Marie de Médrano, lord of Mauhic, was guillotined in Auch.^[30]

He obtained the title 'lord of Mauhic' a few years after the Abbé de Préchac died in 1732, at Mauhic. In the Kécrologe de Berdoues, the death of the Abbé de Préchac is recorded in November 1732. He had held the title of abbot of Berdoues for thirty-six years. According to the Inventory of the Convent, Jean-Marie de Médrano became his heir. Archives of the Auch Seminary have many papers concerning Medrano, lords of Mauhic, etc. Jean-Marie de Médrano's appointment took place in October 1735. The taking of possession only dates from 1736, the time of the expedition of the Bulls.^[32]

Etienne de Médrano, former captain of infantry, residing in Nogaro, was the brother of Jean-Marie Médrano, the former prisoner of Auch, and brother-in-law of Robert Dubernet, resident of Loubédat. The Directory of National Domains in Paris requested payment with the following note: "Confiscation of Médrano-Mauhic property, condemned..." His furniture was made known by Father Camoreyt in his inventory; from "the renowned workshop of Palazo," Father Camoreyt only makes known the most esteemed articles, those which had a greater value, and which were sent first to citizen Tastet, administrator of the district of Nogaro, and then to Paris because of the gold, silver and precious materials that adorned them. It was from Paris or from some large city, which the lord of Mauhic must have brought this furniture, so rich and of great style. It was found at the Château de Mauhic.^[30] Jean de Médrano, a knight, Lord of Baulat, Monlezun, etc., born in the diocese of Auch in 1740, married Marie Lefebvre de Ladonchamps in Metz in 1764.^[33] In 1784, Jean provided proof of nobility to secure admission to the Military School for his son, Henri-Jacques de Médrano de Baulat, born in Monpardiac in 1772. de Médrano took part in the 1789 assemblies of the nobility held in Lectoure.^[33]

Marquisate of Medrano

Crown of French Marquises

The County of Armagnac was definitively reunited with the Crown following the accession of Henri IV, in 1589, a few years after Julián Íñiguez de Medrano's death. The Medrano family originates from Navarre, from where they settled in Armagnac very early. They were confirmed in their nobility on April 2, 1697, by the judgment of Sanson, Intendant of Montauban, after proving their lineage since 1550 in the south of France.^[33] By the time of King Louis XVI, the ancient house of Medrano had obtained the illustrious Marquisate de Medrano, to which they gave their name. Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The Marquis de Medrano is recorded in the official minutes, by roll call, or by the signature of the members present at the Estates General of 1789.^[33]

Opening of the Estates General in Versailles, 5 May 1789.

The General Assembly of Lectoure, March 16, 1789: de Medrano, The Marquis de Medrano.^[34]

The Marquisate de Medrano was a part of a complete list of the nobility of Armagnac, the senechaussee of Lectoure, which Armagnac embraced almost entirely. Armagnac and Quercy did not form two provinces, but only two Sénéchaussées, administered separately at the time of the convocation of the Assemblies of the Nobility in 1789. They were bordering, and located between Auvergne, Guienne, Gascony and Languedoc; they roughly formed the three departments of Lot, Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne. Records of the Marquis de Medrano are kept in the "Minutes of the General Assembly of the three orders of the seneschalsy of Lectoure. March 16, 1789 (Under King Louis XVI)" in the catalog of the Gentlemen of Armagnac and Quercy who took part or sent their proxy to the Assemblies of the Nobility for the election of Deputies to the Estates General of 1789. Summoned by King Louis XVI, the Estates General of 1789 ended when the Third Estate, along with some members of the other Estates, formed the National Assembly and, against the wishes of the King, invited the other two estates to join. This signaled the outbreak of the French Revolution.^[35]

Lords of Gauré

Château de Guare

Dona Antionette de Medrano, the mistress of the chateau de Gauré, was born in Spain.^[36] Guaré is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. Her brother, Duke Ramon de Medrano, had been lord of Mauser, Gauré and other places; this very Château de Guaré had been his.^[36] However, the Revolution came, and he was guillotined. In order that she herself might not share the fate of her brother, she had fled to Spain, disguised as a goat herder, where she found refuge with her other brother, who was a Bishop. After the Restoration, she had returned to France to claim the estates inherited from her ill-fated brother, the Duke. She had settled in the Chateau de Gaure and had taken into her service as a shepherdess a little girl twelve years old. There, she would also take in a wolf, and named him Pharamond.^[36]

Desrousseaux de Médrano Branch

Coat of arms of Desrousseaux de Médrano in France (1st Quarter, of Desrousseaux; 2nd Quarter, of Medrano)

Shortly before the restoration of the French monarchy, the House of Medrano united with the House of Desrousseaux in France (1809), creating the noble Desrousseaux de Médrano branch. Louis-Philippe Desrousseaux, who died in Paris in 1875, married Charlotte-Louise de Médrano in 1809. In September 1866, Louis-Philippe requested and received, by imperial decree on June 22, 1867, the authorization to regularly add the name of the Médrano family to his own, to which his wife belonged.^[33] The Desrousseaux family was authorized to join their name to Médrano, and will be dedicated to them in their place. The Desrousseaux family belonged to the great commerce of Sedan in the 18th century.^[33] Information about them is stored in the Titles, Ennoblements, and Peerages of the Restoration by Viscount Révérend. He had two sons:

• Charles-Adolphe Desrousseaux de Médrano born in Charleville in 1810, married Me Perrier in 1847, and died in 1876, leaving a son
• François-Henri Desrousseaux de Médrano born in Charleville in 1817, administrator of the Saint-Gobain Glass Company, a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, who married his cousin, Mile Desrousseaux de Vandières, in 1847 and had a son, Édouard, who married Baroness Marthe-Eugénie du Sart de Bouland in 1893 and died without offspring in 1896.

Louis-Philippe Desrousseaux de Medrano's brother Édouard-Charles created the Desrousseaux de Vandières branch when he married his wife and added it to his surname along with the Vandières Estate.^[33] His descendant Ange-Alphonse-Edward Desrousseaux de Vandières, born at the Vandières castle in 1866, was a cavalry officer, a knight of honor and devotion of the Order of Malta, and was honored with the title of Roman Duke by a papal brief on February 9, 1909.^[33] He made a prestigious connection through his marriage in Lugano in 1901 to Princess Élisabeth d'Ysembourg and Büdingen, a member of one of Germany's most illustrious houses, and the daughter of Bruno, Prince of Ysenburg and Büdingen.^[33]

Medrano unites with the Dukes of Gor

Coat of arms of the Dukes of Gor

The house of Medrano became Dukes of Gor, Grandee, by marriage. Don Nicolás Mauricio Álvarez de las Asturias Bohorques y Vélez Ladrón de Guevara, Verdugo y Enríquez de Sevilla, I Duke of Gor, married with Doña María del Carmen Chacón de Medrano.^[37]

Duchess María del Carmen Chacón Medrano was the daughter of Francisco Chacón-Manrique de Lara Medrano,^[38] who in turn was the son of Manuela Tomasa Medrano Angulo (1695), daughter of Andrés de Medrano y Mendizábal, II Count of Torrubia (1654), son of García de Medrano y Alvarez de los Ríos, regent of the Kingdom of Navarre and Seville in the 17th century. Duchess María del Carmen Chacón Medrano was born in Seville on July 17, 1772, and died in Madrid on May 2, 1860, belonging to –by her paternal father Francisco Chacón-Manrique de Lara Medrano (1729-1785)– a branch to the county house of Mollina, and by her maternal mother María del Carmen Carrillo de Albornoz Jacome de Linden (1738) to the ducal of Montemar (de Medrano and de Linden both married on 2 February 1791).^[38]

The I Dukes of Gor had a second son named José Alvarez de las Asturias Bohorques y Chacón Medrano (born on January 10, 1794, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain), Lieutenant Colonel of Cavalry of the National Armies of Spain. José Alvarez married with Maria Josefa Simona Bellvis de Moncada y Palafox Alvarez de Toledo y Portocarrero, XVII Marchioness of Vallhermoso de Tajuña and V Marquesa de Bélgida, Grandee of Spain. The mother in-law of José Alvarez was Maria Benita de los Dolores Palafox y Portocarrero, the legitimate aunt of the Empress of France; being the youngest sister of Cipriano de Palafox, and the youngest daughter of Felipe Palafox y Croy and María Francisca de Sales Portocarrero y Zúñiga. Empress Eugénie de Montijo was born to Cipriano de Palafox, Duke of Peñaranda del Duero, and María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y Grevignée.^[39]

The Duke of Gor's Library

The origin of the library that has survived into the 20th century, known in Granada as the Duke of Gor's Library, dates back to the late 17th century with the inclusion of a vast collection of books by Don Pedro Verdugo de Albornoz y Ursúa, II Count of Torrepalma. He established the foundations of this library in his house near the Carrera del Darro. Don Pedro spent many years amassing an extensive literary collection, which included various Arabic codices, letters, manuscripts, and poetry from both Luis de Góngora and Francisco Quevedo. The collection also contained several 15th-century incunabula. Pedro Verdugo's successor, Alfonso Verdugo, III Count of Torrepalma and lord of Gor, had a strong interest in literature and continued to expand the library's holdings.^[40]

He was also a member of the Poetic Academy El Trípode, which convened at the Sacromonte Abbey. The great-grandson of the library's founder, the II Duke of Gor, acquired the literary collection and established it in his house on Plaza de los Girones. The space, which housed a vast number of volumes, underwent modifications in 1882 and further expansion in 1898. In 1962, the most valuable part of the library was sold by the then Duke of Gor to the bibliophile Don Bartolomé March Servera, who transported it to Madrid to incorporate it into his extensive archive. With over 20,000 volumes, it became one of the finest privately-owned libraries in Spain.^[40]