"The Mayans believed that only the offering of a human heart could nourish their gods"
Cardiologist and historian Vincent M. Figueredo has just published a book in which he explains the history and importance of this organ from a spiritual, philosophical, artistic and scientific point of view.
BarcelonaThe French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once said that the heart has reasons that reason does not understand. There are things that we can recognize as true, but we do not know them through logical reason, but rather we intuit them within our heart. And it is precisely this emotion, which seems to come from a magical place, that has made most civilizations feel fascinated by this organ of the body.
For many societies, the heart was where the soul and conscience resided, a position that the brain would occupy today. All this and much more is discussed in the book. The curious story of the heart (Ariel, 2025), written by cardiologist and historian Vincent M. Figueredo. Through its pages, the entire history of this human organ is covered, from the beliefs it inspired in ancient civilizations to its medical and scientific advances, as well as the vision of art and literature.
"The ancient Egyptians referred to the heart with the word and b, which could mean the physical heart, the mind, intelligence, will, desire, mood or knowledge," explains Figueredo. Like them, other ancient cultures venerated it, and considered that it was this organ of the body that connected the individual with God. and that only the offering of a human heart could nourish and energize their gods; while Confucius said that "wherever you go, go with all your heart."
Later, in the Middle Ages, the heart became a symbol of sincerity, truth, loyalty and fidelity. Its representation often appeared on family coats of arms and crests. It was also then that the first known artistic representation in Europe appeared: a scene of a man in love kneeling in front of a damsel, to whom he offers his heart.
Its shape is reminiscent of a pineapple, with the tip of the heart pointing upwards, as mentioned in the anatomical descriptions of the time, made by Galen and Aristotle. It was not until the Renaissance that Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius, known as the father of modern anatomy, made the first sketches of what we now accept as the first accurate representations of the heart.
Cultural icon
From ancient times until now, the heart has been one of the main themes in music, painting or literature, and has become a symbol to talk about falling in love, love, strength or heartbreak. Everyone has heard or expressed the fact of having a "broken heart." "The emotions we feel in our brain reverberate in our heart, and the resulting physical sensations are manifestations of the heart's response," says Figueredo. It is precisely for this reason that for thousands of years the soul of the body has been located in this organ, and not in the brain, as one might believe today.
By the end of the 17th century, "anatomical knowledge of the heart was surprisingly precise, and the theories postulated by William Harvey on the existence of a double circuit were widely accepted," says the author. And if it was during the Renaissance that science transformed our view of the heart, it was not until the Enlightenment and from the 19th century onwards that there was "a revolution in our understanding of the functioning of the heart and the circulatory system, the identification of cardiovascular diseases and how to diagnose and treat them," he continues. It was then that doctors understood that the heart was not an infallible organ and that names could now be given to diseases that until then had been attributed to "heart pain."
Despite the great scientific advances and the vast amount of information we have today about how the heart works, it still occupies a privileged place in our cultural iconography. Its image, its concept, is a metaphor to describe the most valuable thing we feel as human beings: love. In this way, and as Figueredo points out in the book, we live acting as if we had two hearts: the physical heart, which keeps us alive, and the symbolic heart, which defines our emotions, desires, courage and interpersonal connections. In the end, the heart remains our center, our soul.
