Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus

Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus
Born1575
Died1642
Salomon Savery, Portret van de arts Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus, 1634. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus (Abraham Zacuto IV, Zacuti Lusitani, 1575–1642, also known as Manuel Alvares de Tavara[1]), was a Sephardic Jewish Marrano or converso physician from Lisbon who was the author of a handbook of medical information.[2][3][4][5]

Biography

Zacutus studied medicine at the University of Salamanca and the University of Coimbra in Spain before fleeing the Spanish Inquisition to Holland.[6] As a physician, he developed a strong reputation in Portugal which he carried with him to the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam.[2] He was a descendant of Abraham Zacuto, his namesake.[5]

The 1629-1642 12 volume encyclopedia De Medicorum Principum Historia published by Henricus Laurentius [nl] is his most-well-known work.[7][6] He conceived of his work as a praxis historialis and it contains 200 historiae from Galen.[8] Considered imaginative by his contemporaries, in his praxis medica admiranda, snakes, scorpions, lizards, and hens are thought of as gastrointestinal parasites, and he also describes a woman giving birth to a salamander, and a man who urinated a cloud of flies.[9] He also discussed a case that he describes as lovesickness.[10]

Zacutus wrote about plague, diphtheria, fevers, and malignant growths, and was one of the first to describe black water fever, and contributed to knowledge of syphilis. He was cited by Astruc and Carvalho. He was aware of Harvey's work on the heart and blood circulation, but committed errors in anatomy he had mislearned from Galen.[5] He is considered a literary, if not a scientific, conservative.[11] He discusses some surgery as well, including the lengths of incisions for abscesses.[12]

As a New Christian convert, he was sometimes viewed with suspicion by the "Old Christians".[13] In 1631 he asked Benedictus de Castro [de] to take action against the Christian detractors of Portuguese-Jewish medicine.[14]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zacutus Lusitanus.
  1. ^ "Portrait of Doctor Abraham Zacutus | Posen Library". www.posenlibrary.com. Retrieved 2024-10-05.
  2. ^ a b Blom, Hans; Wertheim, David J.; Berg, Hetty; Wallet, Bart T. (2021-09-15). Reappraising the History of the Jews in the Netherlands. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-80085-824-4.
  3. ^ Levy, Barry (1990-07-01). Planets, Potions, and Parchments: Scientifica Hebraica from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Eighteenth Century. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-7735-6266-0.
  4. ^ Szancer, Henryk (1967). "Introduction à la " Pharmacopoea elegantissima " d'Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus". Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie. 55 (194): 509–514. doi:10.3406/pharm.1967.7664.
  5. ^ a b c Friedenwald, Harry (1939). "Abraham Zacutus". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 7 (5): 458–485. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44442708.
  6. ^ a b Ben-Menahem, Ari (2009-03-06). Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-540-68831-0.
  7. ^ French, Roger Kenneth (2003-02-20). Medicine Before Science: The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00761-0.
  8. ^ Pomata, Gianna; Siraisi, Nancy G. (2005). Historia: Empiricism and Erudition in Early Modern Europe. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-16229-6.
  9. ^ Bondeson, Jan (2019-01-24). A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-3345-1.
  10. ^ Knowledge and Religion in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Honor of Michael Heyd. BRILL. 2013-03-22. ISBN 978-90-04-23148-1.
  11. ^ Jarcho, Saul (1989). "The Style of Zacutus Lusitanus and its Origins". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 44 (3): 291–295. doi:10.1093/jhmas/44.3.291. ISSN 0022-5045. JSTOR 24633014. PMID 2671145.
  12. ^ Kunstler, Walter E. (1942). "Aesthetic Considerations in Surgical Operations from Antiquity to Recent Times". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 12 (1): 27–69. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44442770.
  13. ^ Roth, Cecil (1940). "Marranos and Racial Antisemitism: A Study in Parallels". Jewish Social Studies. 2 (3): 239–248. ISSN 0021-6704. JSTOR 4464346.
  14. ^ Wendehorst, Stephan (2004-10-01). The Roman Inquisition, the Index and the Jews: Contexts, Sources and Perspectives. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-474-0622-8.