[The Protomedicato Tribunal and the royal physicians (1665-1724)].

This article tries to reconstruct the composition of the Board of Royal Physicians during the reign of Charles II (1665-1799) and the first part of the reign of Philip V (1700-1724), a crucial period in the introduction of modern science and medicine in the Spanish Kingdoms. Their personal records, to be found in the Archivo General de Palacio in Madrid, have been exhaustively consulted. Some of these royal physicians formed part of the Castilian Tribunal del Protomedicato, by means of which the Board of Royal Physicians was selected, promoted and controlled. The Protomedicato was an important battlefield in the conflict between traditional and modern medicine, in which Italian physicians played a decisive role.