Garcia de Orta
Garcia de Orta | |
---|---|
NOVA Medical School, Lisbon) | |
Born | 1501 or 1502 |
Died | 1568 |
Occupation(s) | Physician and naturalist |
Signature | |
Garcia de Orta (or Garcia d'Orta; 1501–1568) was a Portuguese physician, herbalist, and naturalist, who worked primarily in
A pioneer of tropical medicine, pharmacognosy, and ethnobotany, Garcia used an experimental approach to the identification and the use of herbal medicines, rather than the older approach of received knowledge.
His most famous work is
Although Garcia de Orta did not suffer the
Memorials recognizing his contributions have been built in both Portugal and India.
Life
Garcia de Orta was born in
Garcia studied medicine, arts and philosophy at the Universities of Alcalá de Henares and Salamanca in Spain. He graduated and returned to Portugal in 1525, two years after his father's death. He practiced medicine first in his hometown and from 1526 onwards in Lisbon, where he gained a lectureship at the university in 1532.[4] He also became a royal physician to John III of Portugal.[5]
Perhaps fearing the increasing power of the
The King of Portugal through the Viceroy Dom Pedro Mascarenhas granted a lifelong lease (on payment of a quit-rent) to Garcia da Orta for the Ilha da Boa Vida ("the Island of the Good Life") which became a part of Bombay.[8] This was probably somewhere between September 1554 and June 1555. The only condition of the lease was that he had to improve the place. He had a manor house with a large garden. He probably maintained an excellent library here. This manor stood not far from where the Town Hall of Bombay was built. Garcia probably let out the house to Simao Toscano. At the time of Bombay's transfer to the English, the manor was occupied by Dona Ignez de Miranda, widow of Dom Rodrigo de Monsanto. It was in this house that the treaty by which Bombay was transferred to the English was signed by Humphrey Cooke on February 18, 1665.[9] Garcia describes the people around Bassein and their traditions in his book.[10]
Contrary to some early biographical accounts, Garcia de Orta married a wealthy cousin, Brianda de Solis, in 1543; the marriage was unhappy, but the couple had two daughters. In 1549, his mother and two of his sisters, who had been imprisoned as Jews in Lisbon, managed to join him in Goa. According to a confession by his brother-in-law after his death, Garcia de Orta privately continued to assert that "the Law of Moses was the true law";
Work
Garcia de Orta's busy practice evidently prevented him from travelling much beyond the west coast of India, but in the busy market and trading hub of Goa he met spice merchants, traders and physicians from many parts of southern Asia and the Indian Ocean coasts. He was confident in
His remarkable knowledge of Eastern spices and drugs is revealed in his only known work,
Da Orta critiqued the work of Leonhart Fuchs. Through his character he commented that Fuchs "...knew little of physic, and still less of things to save his soul, being a heretic condemned for Lutheranism. His books were put in the condemned catalogue" and "though medicine is not the science of the Christian religion, still I abhor the author".[23]
In one place he points out that the Portuguese traders took little interest in acquiring knowledge:[24]
The Portuguese, who navigate over a greater part of the world only procure a knowledge of how best to dispose of that merchandise of what they bring here and what they shall take back. They are not desirous of knowing anything about the things in the countries they visit. If they know a product they do not learn from what tree it comes, and if they see it they do not compare it with one of our Indian trees, nor ask about its fruit or what it is like.
The printing press was introduced into Goa in 1556. The printer for Garcia is thought to have been João de Endem who began with Joao Quinquenio de Campania and continued after him.
Garcia's travels to Portuguese Ceylon (Jaffna) on campaigns with Martim allowed him to study Sri Lankan medicinal plants. Among the descriptions from here are plants used in the treatment of snakebite. Some of the information is based on folklore, such as the plants that were supposedly eaten by mongoose after being bitten by cobras.[30] Orta also described plants of forensic importance such as the use of Datura used by thieves and robbers to poison their victims.[31]
The preface of the book includes a verse by his friend, the poet Luís de Camões, now considered as Portugal's national poet. Luis de Camões had worked briefly in Portuguese Macau before returning to Goa in 1561. In his poem Os Lusíadas, Camões plays on the word "Orta" which refers to his friend as well as meaning "garden". The book was dedicated to Dom Francisco Coutinho, Count of Redondo, Viceroy of Goa from 1561 to 1564, and to his friend Martim de Sousa.[32] In the preface he pointed out that he could well have written the book in Latin but chose Portuguese so that the traders and other locals could make use of it.[3]
Garcia de Orta's work was accidentally discovered by Clusius in early 1564 and he translated it into Latin, while also changing it from a dialogue to an epitomized form,[19] and this was widely read across Europe and underwent several editions.[21]
Books
The first edition of Garcia de Orta's book was in Portuguese and published from Goa in 1563 and had 217 pages. Only about six copies were thought to exist according to Valentine Ball in 1890. A second version was published in Lisbon in 1872. An abridged Latin version was produced by Carolus Clusius in 1567 with subsequent editions in 1574, 1579, 1582, 1584, 1593, 1595 and 1605/6. A translation of the Latin version into Italian was produced by Annibal de Briganti in 1576, followed by other editions in 1582, 1589 and 1616. A Spanish version of the Tractado of Cristobal A'Costa which included Clusius's abridgement and A'Costas's personal observation was published in 1578 from Burgos.[33]
- Coloquios dos Simples e Drogas da India. Band 1 . Imprensa nacional, Lisboa 1891 (Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf)
- Coloquios dos Simples e Drogas da India. Band 2 . Imprensa nacional, Lisboa 1892 (Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf)
- Histoire des drogues, espiceries, et de certains medicamens simples, qui naissent és Indes et en l'Amerique : divisé en deux parties: La première comprise en 4 livres: Les deux premiers de Garcie Du Jardin, le troisième de Christophle de La Coste, et le quatrième de l'histoire du baulme, adjousteée de nouveau en ceste 2. éd.: où il est prouvé, que nous avons le vray baulme d'Arabie, contre l'opinion des anciens et modernes ; la seconde composée de deux livres de maistre Nicolas Monard traictant de ce qui nous est apporté de l'Amerique.... Lyon : Pillehotte, 1619. (Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.)
Legacy
Garcia's work influenced a number of later herbals and botanical works including those by
In Goa, the municipal garden (built in 1855) in the capital city of Panjim has been named as "Garcia de Orta" in his memory.[21] It is located facing the main city square that also houses the majestic church of Our Lady of Immaculate conception (Nossa Senhora da Concepção Imaculada) and was renovated in 2010.
A postal stamp of Garcia de Orta was released by Portugal in 1963.[34] In 1971, the 20 Escudos bank note carried a picture of Garcia de Orta.[35]
Name variants
Garcia de Orta has been Latinized in some works as "Garcias ab Horto" and then translated variously with some French works referring to him as "de la Huerta" and "Dujardin".[33]
Notes
- ^ Boxer 1963, p. 6.
- ^ Markham 1913, p. viii.
- ^ .
- ^ Boxer 1963, pp. 7–8.
- ^ PMID 22530483.
- ISBN 9780470672914.
- ^ Rego, A. Da Silva (1963). "Garcia de Orta e a ideia de tolerancia religiosa" (PDF). Revista da Junta de Investigações do Ultramar (in Portuguese). 11 (4): 663–676.
- ^ Malabari, Phiroze B.M. (1910). Bombay in the making. London: T. Fisher Unwin. p. 21.
- ^ Markham 1913, p. ix.
- ^ Da Cunha, J. Gerson (1900). The Origin of Bombay. Bombay: Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. pp. 98–114.
- ^ Boxer 1963, p. 10.
- ^ Inquisition records quoted in Silva Carvalho (1934):74, 159.
- ISSN 0021-6682.
- ^ da Silva Carvalho, Augusto (1934). "Garcia d'Orta". Revista da Universidade de Coimbra. 12: 61–246, 202–215.
- ^ de Almeida, Fortunato (1923). História da Igreja em Portugal, vol. IV. Porto: Portucalense Editora.
- ^ Boxer 1963, p. 19.
- ^ Boxer 1963, p. 11.
- ^ a b c d Pearson, M.N. (2001). "Hindu Medical Practice in Sixteenth-Century Western India: Evidence from Portuguese Sources". Portuguese Studies. 17: 100–113.
- ^ .
- ^ Mathew, K.S. (1997). "The Portuguese and the study of medicinal plants in India in the sixteenth century" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 32 (4): 369–376. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-02.
- ^ PMID 1773182.
- ^ Tharakan, Koshy; Siqueira, Alito (2009). "Science of Nature: Garcia de Orta as a Philosopher of Science". In Mendes, Anabela (ed.). Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and the West. Universidade Católica Editora. pp. 31–38.
- PMID 22530483.
- ^ Grove, Richard (1991). "The Transfer of Botanical Knowledge between Asia and Europe 1498-1800". Journal of the Japan— Netherlands Institute. 3: 160–176.
- ^ .
- ^ Markham 1913, p. xi.
- ^ Boxer 1963, p. 13.
- ^ Markham 1913, p. xiv.
- doi:10.1086/357878.
- ^ Petch, T. (1919). "Garcia da Orta's mongoose plants". Ceylon Antiq. Lit. Reg. 4 (3): 143–149.
- .
- ^ Markham 1913, p. x.
- ^ JSTOR 20503854.
- .
- ^ Money Museum. Banco de Portugal
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Garcia de Orta.
References
- Boxer, C. R. (1963). Two pioneers of tropical medicine: Garcia d'Orta and Nicolás Monardes. London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library.
- Ficalho, C. (1886). Garcia de Orta e o seu tempo. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional.
- Keller, A. G. (1970). "Orta, Garcia D'". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 10. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Markham, Clements (1913). Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India by Garcia da Orta. London: Henry Sotheran and Co.
- Roddis, Louis (1931). "Garcia da Orta, the first European writer on tropical medicine and a pioneer in pharmacognosy". Annals of Medical History. 1 (2): 198–207.
- Révah, I. S. (1960). "A família de Garcia de Orta". Revista da Universidade de Coimbra. 19: 407–420.