Abstract
In the early sixteenth century, Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Flemish and German academics led the revival of the study of botany. In Germany, Otho Brunfels, Jerome Bock, Leonhart Fuchs, Adam Lonicerus, and Valerius Cordus published herbals dealing with European medicinal plants, but notes on Asian products remain invaluable. The Portuguese doctor Garcia de Orta sailed to Goa in 1534. There, he published his Coloquios dos Simples e Drogas da India in 1563. It is precisely in the context of Indian materia medica that Garcia de Orta’s path intersects with that of the German academics. The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of Valerius Cordus’ and Leonhart Fuchs’ works on Orta’s Coloquios. To this end, the original Latin descriptions of Asian medicinal products made by Cordus and Fuchs were compared with Orta’s interpretations. It was observed that Garcia de Orta makes good use of Cordus’s descriptions of cardamom, cassia lignea, cinnamon, lignum aloes (agarwood) and tamarind fruits. His attitude towards Fuchs, however, was less accommodating because he was, in Orta’s words, “a heretic condemned for being a Lutheran” and he distorted the words of the German master about ivory. It was concluded that neither Garcia de Orta’s Renaissance humanism nor his scientific view of Indian natural history was any match for the influence of his religious beliefs. Orta did not escape the profound doctrinal and theological division that was raging Europe after the emergence of the Reformation movement.
Highlights
IntroductionConcerning herbals, these academics reprinted Dioscorides’s treatise De materia medica, to which they added comments and observations, as well as corrections, but they wrote new works (Elliott, 2011), in which they incorporated the knowledge available on medicinal plants, with emphasis on those of central and northern Europe, which the treatises by the masters of Antiquity did not have (Pires, 1984; Ogilvie, 2003; Touwaide, 2003; Cohen, 2010)
In the sixteenth century, there was a revival of botany from medieval times
In the early sixteenth century, Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Flemish and German academics led the revival of the study of botany
Summary
Concerning herbals, these academics reprinted Dioscorides’s treatise De materia medica, to which they added comments and observations, as well as corrections, but they wrote new works (Elliott, 2011), in which they incorporated the knowledge available on medicinal plants, with emphasis on those of central and northern Europe, which the treatises by the masters of Antiquity did not have (Pires, 1984; Ogilvie, 2003; Touwaide, 2003; Cohen, 2010)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
