[The Protomedicato Tribunal and midwives. A relationship at the service of surgery].

We reviewed the bibliography on the history of midwives, and examined municipal and legislative sources, to investigate the relationship between midwives and the Protomedicato in Castile during the 16th to 18th centuries. Our thesis is that the Protomedicato exerted little control over the professional activity of midwives or over improvements made in the The Art of Attending Childbirths. Instead, it appears to have played a greater role in the professional and scientific consolidation of surgeons, by recognizing their authority in obstetric matters.