Coloquios dos Simples, e Drogas he Cousas Medicinais da India

Coloquios dos Simples, e Drogas he Cousas Medicinais da India

Orta, Garcia de, active 16th century

Title pages

Treatises

Once physician to the King of Portugal, Garcia de Orta travelled to India in order to escape the Inquisition, and remained there the rest of his life. He taught in the faculty of medicine at Lisbon in the early 1530's; in 1534, he settled in Goa, where he began a successful practice. De Orta survived the Inquisition unharmed, but after his death, his Jewish ancestry was discovered, and his body was exhumed and burned in an auto-da-féin 1580.

The Coloquios, the third book ever published in India, consists of dialogues between De Orta and a friend named Ruano on the subject of drugs, herbs, and medical traditions native to the East. The book was a revelation to European readers unfamiliar with these ideas. Many editions were published in Latin, French, Spanish, and the original Portuguese.

Title page of Garcia de Orta's Coloquios dos Simples, e Drogas he Cousas Mediçinais da India

Orta, Garcia de, active 16th century

por Ioannes de Endem

1563

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Boston Medical Library Rare Books Collection (RS164.O8)

text

title page

Latin

text

DigID0002714

Purchased for the Solomon M. Hyams Collection of the Boston Medical Library, 1935