Medicine, Trade and Empire: Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563) in Context

304 Pages·2016·3.221 MB·English

by  Garcia de Orta, Palmira Fontes da Costa

MEDICINE, TRADE AND EMPIRE
The History of Medicine in Context
Series Editors: Andrew Cunningham and Ole Peter Grell
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Department of History
Open University
Titles in the series include
Anatomy and Anatomists in Early Modern Spain
Bjørn Okholm Skaarup
The Fate of Anatomical Collections
Edited by Rina Knoeff and Robert Zwijnenberg
Sudden Death: Medicine and Religion in Eighteenth-Century Rome
Maria Pia Donato
Suzanne Noël: Cosmetic Surgery, Feminism and Beauty in
Early Twentieth-Century France
Paula J. Martin
Wounds in the Middle Ages
Edited by Anne Kirkham and Cordelia Warr
Medicine, Trade and Empire
Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs
of India (1563) in Context
Edited by
PALMIRA FONTES DA COSTA
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Palmira Fontes da Costa and the contributors 2015
Palmira Fontes da Costa has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the editor of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Medicine, trade and empire : Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India
(1563) in context / edited by Palmira Fontes da Costa.
pages cm.—(The history of medicine in context)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-3123-3 (hardcover)
1. Orta, Garcia de, active 16th century. Colóquios dos simples
e drogas e coisas medicinais da India e de algumas frutas. 2. Materia medica, Vegetable—
India—History—16th century. 3. Orta, Garcia de, active 16th century. 4. Naturalists—
Portugal—Biography. 5. Medicine—India—History—16th century. 6. Medicine—
Portugal—History—16th century. 7. Velha Goa (India)—Commerce—History—16th
century. 8. Indian Ocean—Commerce—History—16th century. 9. Portugal—
Commerce—History—16th century. 10. Portugal—Colonies—Asia—History—16th
century. I. Costa, Palmira Fontes da.
RS178.O63M43 2015
615.8’80954—dc23
2014045099
ISBN 9781472431233 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315594729 (ebk)
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Note on Conventions xvii
Foreword xix
Acknowledgements xxiii
Introduction 1
Palmira Fontes da Costa
1 Garcia de Orta in the Context of the Sephardic Diaspora 11
Jon Arrizabalaga
2 Locating Garcia de Orta in the Port City of Goa and the
Indian Ocean World 33
Michael Pearson
3 Garcia de Orta’s Colóquios: Context and Afterlife of a Dialogue 49
Ines G. Županov
4 A ‘Pleasant Banquet of Words’: Therapeutic Virtues and
Alimentary Consumption in Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the
Simples and Drugs of India 67
Inês de Ornellas e Castro
5 Between Science and Philology: Taxonomy of Errors in
Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies 89
Isabel Soler and Juan Pimentel
6 Cultures of Inquiry, Myths of Empire: Natural History in
Colonial Goa 107
Hugh Cagle
vi Medicine, Trade and Empire
7 Trading in Medical Simples and Developing the New Science:
de Orta and His Contemporaries 129
Harold J. Cook
8 Garcia de Orta and Amato Lusitano’s Views on
Materia Medica: a Comparative Perspective 147
António Manuel Lopes Andrade
9 Figuring Exotic Nature in Sixteenth-Century Europe:
Garcia de Orta and Carolus Clusius 167
Florike Egmond
10 East Indies, West Indies: Garcia de Orta and the Spanish
Treatises on Exotic Materia Medica 195
José Pardo Tomás
11 ‘Enduring Echoes of Garcia de Orta’: the Royal Hospital
Gardens in Goa and Evolving Hybridization in Portuguese
Colonial Medical Culture 213
Timothy D. Walker
12 Identity and the Construction of Memory in Representations
of Garcia de Orta 237
Palmira Fontes da Costa
Afterword 267
Andrew Cunningham
Index 273
List of Figures
9.1 The Maldive coconut mounted in silver from Clusius’s
Exoticorum, 1605, p. 193. Courtesy of the Library of the
National Palace of Mafra 175
9.2 Cloves from Clusius’s Aromatum, 1567, p. 102. Courtesy
of the Portuguese National Library 177
9.3 Cloves from Clusius’s Exoticorum, 1605, p. 181. Courtesy
of the Library of the National Palace of Mafra 178
9.4 Original drawing of the guanabanus from Libri Picturati,
A. 23.027. Courtesy of Jagiellon Library, Kraków 185
9.5 Guanabanus (baobab) from Clusius’s Aromatum, 1567,
p. 228. Courtesy of the Portuguese National Library 186
9.6 Original drawing of folium from Libri Picturati, A. 23.022.
Courtesy of Jagiellon Library, Kraków 187
9.7 Folium (tamalapatra) from Clusius’s Aromatum, 1567,
p. 95. Courtesy of the Portuguese National Library 188
9.8 Original drawing of ankle bands made of ahouai beads from
Libri Picturati, A. 23.027. Courtesy of the Jagiellon Library,
Kraków 190
12.1 Frontispiece from Garcia de Orta, Coloquios dos simples he
cousas mediçinais da India e assi dalguãs frutas achadas nella
onde se tratam alguãs cousas tocantes a medicina, pratica,
e outras cousas boas pera saber (Goa, 1563). Courtesy of
Sociedade de Ciências Médicas de Lisboa 238
12.2 Annotated page by Cardinal Saraiva of Garcia de Orta’s
Colóquios dos simples (Goa 1563). Courtesy of Sociedade de
Ciências Médicas de Lisboa 242
12.3 Frontispiece from Conde de Ficalho edition of Garcia de
Orta’s Colóquios dos simples, vol. 1, Lisboa, 1891. Courtesy
of Sociedade de Ciências Médicas de Lisboa 244
12.4 Veloso Salgado, Study for the decoration of the Escola Médica
de Lisboa, ‘Garcia de Orta e os Médicos Portugueses’ circa
1905, oil painting on canvas; 70.5×92 cm. Courtesy of House-
Museum Medeiros e Almeida, Lisbon, Portugal; Photocredits:
Pedro Moura 246
viii Medicine, Trade and Empire
12.5 Veloso Salgado, panel for the decoration of the Escola Médica
de Lisboa, ‘Garcia de Orta e os Médicos Portugueses’, 1906,
mural painting; 392×342 cm. Courtesy of Faculdade de
Ciências Médicas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa 247
12.6 Inauguration of the statue of Garcia de Orta by Joaquim
Martins Correia, 8 September 1958. Courtesy of the Instituto
de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT-000592B) 251
12.7 Detail of the same statue of Garcia de Orta by Joaquim
Martins Correia, 1958. Courtesy of the Instituto de Higiene
e Medicina Tropical (IHMT-000592C) 252
12.8 Commemorative session of the fourth centenary of the
publication in Goa of Garcia de Orta’s Colóquios at the
Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 24 de Maio de 1963,
directed by the President of Portugal – Front page O Século,
25 May 1963. Courtesy of Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo
(PT/TT/EPJS/SF/001–001/0151/1069AO) 256
12.9 João Carlos Celestino Gomes, ‘Garcia de Orta’, Woodcutting,
1945. This representation appeared slightly modified in
Evaristo Franco, Glórias da Medicina Portuguesa, União Gráfica,
1949, p. 62. Courtesy of the Instituto Nacional de Saúde
Doutor Ricardo Jorge, IP 262
12.10 João Cutileiro, ‘Garcia de Orta’, Bust, 1994. Courtesy of
João Cutileiro 263
A.1 Frontispiece from Clusius’s own copy of Garcia de Orta’s
Colóquios … (Goa, 1563). Courtesy of Cambridge University
Library 270
A.2 Clusius’s signature in his own copy of Garcia de Orta’s
Colóquios … (Goa, 1563). Courtesy of Cambridge University
Library 271
A.3 Clusius’s annotated page in his own copy of Garcia de Orta’s
Colóquios … (Goa, 1563). Courtesy of Cambridge University
Library 272
List of Tables
4.1 Fruits with medicinal properties present in the Colloquies 81
4.2 Vegetable products with medicinal and alimentary properties
present in the Colloquies 82
10.1 Timeline with editions of the works of Orta, Monardes,
Fragoso and Acosta, their translations and Hernández’s
expedition 210