Born into the noble Medrano family, he is known for his book, La Silva Curiosa (Paris, 1583) dedicated to Queen Margaret de Valois.

[2] Julián Íñiguez de Medrano started a prolific lineage, who became barons, marquesses and lords of various noble houses in the south of France.

In fact, there is a letter from Juan de Vega, ambassador of Carlos V before the Holy See, dated 9 June 1546, in which he mentions a conversation with Pedro de Albret y Navarra, bishop of Cominges, illegitimate son of Juan III of Navarra —stepbrother, therefore, of Enrique II—, and spy imperial in the court of the kings of Navarre, in which he informed him that Enrique II was trying to gain support in Upper Navarre to recover it.

Sic bellicosa Cantabria decus, Medrana, tot tantisque laboribilsy defuncte, recludas fidelis ingenii monimenta cunetas.

Expande merces quas tibi Iberia Ferax novorum, aut praebuit Aphrica monstrosa mater, vel dederunt, Italid Siculique campi.

Quaecumque tándem mille periculis, gentes et urbes tot peragrans, redux scrutata docté, tecum Jule incolumis patriae reportas.

Namque haec supremum sola fugit rogum omnes in annos posthuma, caeteris, finem vetustas, imber, ignis, et violens minitatur Eurus.

Haec illa verae est laiidis adorea, condigna merces ingeniis bonis, Cosíos supra quae postmodum ala te vehet haud metuente solui.

If only fate, not civil madness and violence, could grant me peace; if my lyre and the Muses' measured verses held any power, I would not let your great labors fall to oblivion, nor would any age, with envy’s poison laid aside, be silent of your name: Not because you possess ivory from India, the jeweled shells of the Red Sea coast, or veins of gold hewn from deep-hidden veins of earth.

La Silva Curiosa (1583)[11] "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?

La Silva Curiosa (1583)[12] Medrano returned from his travels and flourished in the time of Queen Margaret of Valois, and this Princess, who knew how to value people of wit, believed she gained much by having him at her Nérac Court, where he was for several years both an ornament and a delight.

[13] In the list of members of the court corresponding to the year 1584 there appears an «escuyer tranchant», equivalent to a gentleman, named «Medranna», who is, without a doubt, Julián Íñiguez de Medrano.

Most likely, Medrano shared the humanistic spirit that radiated from the court of his former benefactor, Queen Margaret Angoulême: very critical of the vices of the Roman Church, open to new forms of spirituality, but faithful to orthodoxy.

He had been in Nérac with Queen Margaret of Valois, wife of the future Henry IV: “to the most serene Reyna su Señora etando en Nerac,” is the title of one of his sonnets.

[11][15] 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:[3] "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.

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.

"[3] "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.

Almost certainly, his death occurred before the publication of the second edition of La silva in 1608 - which would explain to some extent why Cesar Oudin took the liberty of reducing the original text and adding Cervantes's Curious impertinent.

In the first place, there is a marriage contract of Medrano's son, Pierre, with Jeanne de Durban, dated 3 August 1588, in which his brothers Julien and François accompany the groom, and his mother Sérène is present, but not so his father.

[22] In the entrance hall, there is a double arch at the mouth of the staircase with a central column, decorated with plasterwork displaying elaborate floral designs and angels holding up the Medrano ancestral tree.

In an 18th century document, a list of six of his descendants is made:[3] By the 18th century, the list of lordships in the hands of Julián's descendants in the south of France seems to have been long: "Barons of La Bassère, Lords of Verlus, Mauhic, Guare, Marquefave, Maumusson, Coudret, Laguian, Coladrey, Gouts, Mont-Pardiac" etc., and they had linked with "the Houses of Durban, Cassagnet-Baulat, Sérignac, Mellet, Caissac, and others of good nobility.

As a faithful servant of the Kings of Navarre in a convulsive moment, Medrano managed to gain a small lordship in Maumusson that allowed him to link his children with the nobility of the area.

[27] In 1589 the County of Armagnac was definitively reunited with the crown of France following the accession of Henri IV, shortly after Julián Íñiguez de Medrano's death.

[30] Armagnac and Quercy were bordering, and located between Auvergne, Guienne, Gascony and Languedoc; they roughly formed the three departments of Lot, Gers and Tarn-et-Garonne.

16 March 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.

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.

In September 1866, Louis-Philippe requested and received, by imperial decree on 22 June 1867, the authorization to regularly add the name of the Médrano family to his own, to which his wife belonged.