Opportunities for teaching and studying medicine in medieval Portugal before the foundation of the University of Lisbon (1290)

This paper discusses where Portuguese physicians studied medicine. The careers of two thirteenth-century physicians, Petrus Hispanus and Giles of Santarém, indicate that the Portuguese travelled abroad to study in Montpellier or Paris. But it is also possible that there were opportunities for study in Portugal itself. Particularly significant in this respect is the tradition of medical teaching associated with the Augustinian house of Santa Cruz in Coimbra and the reference to medical texts found in Coimbra archives. From these sources it can be shown that there was a suitable environment for medical study in medieval Portugal, encouraging able students to further their medical interests elsewhere

Opportunities for Teaching and Studying Medicine in Medieval Portugal before the Foundation of the University of Lisbon (1290)

This paper discusses where Portuguese physicians studied medicine. The careers of two thirteenth-century physicians, Petrus Hispanus and Giles of Santarém, indicate that the Portuguese travelled abroad to study in Montpellier or Paris. But it is also possible that there were opportunities for study in Portugal itself. Particularly significant in this respect is the tradition of medical teaching associated with the Augustinian house of Santa Cruz in Coimbra and the reference to medical texts found in Coimbra archives. From these sources it can be shown that there was a suitable environment for medical study in medieval Portugal, encouraging able students to further their medical interests elsewhere

The life and legend of Giles of Santarem, Dominican friar and physician (d.1265) : a perspective on medieval Portugal

"One of the aims of this thesis is to establish the medical background of Giles of Santarem; it does not attempt a full survey of medicine in medieval Portugal. In order to do this it has been necessary to bring together a wide variety of primary and secondary sources which are essential to the reconstruction of Giles' intellectual milieu. In so doing, it is hoped that this will provide an introduction to the relatively neglected topic of medieval Portuguese medicine. Until the 1980s, references to Giles of Santarem were either found in medical studies Such as those described above, or in works of Dominican history. Since then the Dominican perspective has been strengthened, but largely as a result of the publication of editions of sixteenth-century Dominican vitae. First of all in 1981-2, Aires Nascimento produced an edition of the ‘Vita beati Gilii Sanctarenensis’ of Baltazar de Sao Joao. This was followed in 1995 by the critical edition of the ‘De conversione miranda D. Aegidii Lusitani’ of André de Resende by Virginia Soares Pereira. The former editor is a medievalist with a firm interest in social and intellectual history, but he makes no indepth study of the text; the latter is primarily interested in the early-modern context of the author and makes only a cursory study of the medieval basis of the vita. These texts are probably the most important sources for the life of Giles of Santarem and considerable effort is taken to establish the reliability of such late sources and examine the complex process of legend-building that they reveal. Other recent work on Giles of Santarem has largely been carried out by local historians, particularly of Santarem and Vouzela, Giles' traditional place of birth. The most significant, and scholarly, of these is the aforementioned exhibition catalogue ‘S. Frei Gile a sua Época’. This very recent interest suggests that there has been a realization that Giles of Santarem had far more importance in medieval Portugal than has hitherto been accorded him. His life, as will be shown, opens a window onto many vistas: early Dominican settlement, genealogy, education, medical treatment, dissemination of texts, the politics of the civil war, hagiography, and historiography... Historians need to realize that the study of medieval Iberia makes little sense without an appreciation of all the Iberian kingdoms. Portugal may have been in extremis mundi in the Middle Ages, but it was certainly very much part of the medieval world and needs to be studied, both for its own contribution to European history and for the influence the wider world had on the development of its society and institutions. The following in-depth study of the life and legend of Giles of Santarem seeks to provide a key to this approach." -- from the Introductio

Both “illness and temptation of the enemy”: melancholy, the medieval patient and the writings of King Duarte of Portugal (r. 1433–38)

Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor. This paper reassesses Duarte's writings, drawing on key approaches in the history of medicine, such as narrative medicine and the history of the patient. It is important to take Duarte's views on his condition seriously, placing them in the medical and theological contexts of his time and avoiding modern retrospective diagnosis. Duarte's writings can be used to explore the impact of plague, doubt and death on the life of a well-educated and conscientious late-medieval ruler

Opportunities for teaching and studying medicine in medieval Portugal before the foundation of the University of Lisbon (1290)

This paper discusses where Portuguese physicians studied medicine. The careers of two thirteenth-century physicians, Petrus Hispanus and Giles of Santarém, indicate that the Portuguese travelled abroad to study in Montpellier or Paris. But it is also possible that there were opportunities for study in Portugal itself. Particularly significant in this respect is the tradition of medical teaching associated with the Augustinian house of Santa Cruz in Coimbra and the reference to medical texts found in Coimbra archives. From these sources it can be shown that there was a suitable environment for medical study in medieval Portugal, encouraging able students to further their medical interests elsewhere

Introduction : Miracle Collections in Their Contexts

acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Sugar and spices in portuguese renaissance medicine

Uncorrected proofThe history of medicine in late fifteenth and sixteenth-century Portugal cannot be dissociated from the evolution of the monarchy and overseas expansion. Kings and queens were responsible for changes in the institutional structures of charity, creating new hospitals (especially Nossa Senhora do Pópulo in Caldas and Todos-os-Santos in Lisbon) and a new set of confraternities—the Misericórdias—that would take charge of most hospitals in the kingdom from 1564 onwards. Overseas expansion made possible the transformation of the island of Madeira into one of the main producers of sugar, which was then distributed by private persons and institutions, including charitable ones, forming part of medical treatment for the sick poor. Asian spices, also, became common in public and private pharmacies early in the sixteenth century. Through hospitals, which were linked to the royal network of patronage, substances such as sugar and spices became available to the poor