Article ID: CBB001021494

Die Wahrheit entdecken. Garcia da Orta und die “Gespräche über die einfachen Heilmittel” (Goa 1563) (2009)

unapi

The Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India` by Garcia da Orta, published in Goa in 1563, are an inquiry into South Asian materia medica and an important Portuguese contribution to Renaissance herbal literature. The dialogue indicates a fundamental interest in the quest for truth, emphasizing the separation of true from false or vague statements in the description of various plants and vegetable, animal and mineral products of the East Indies. As lectures on the writings of Aristotle and his commentators formed the bases of education at Spanish universities in the 16th century, the current scholar concept of truth at that time derived from Aristotelian philosophy in which scientific truth is taken to arise mainly from syllogistic proof, definition and noetic intuition. Simultaneously another notion of truth emerged, referring to itself in terms of discovery` and experience`. The abundance of unknown phenomena and the strangeness of the exotic flora and fauna had demonstrated that the ability to make true statements in the field of natural history depended largely on sense perception and the collection of information. Both of these two ways to knowledge are required to characterize, compare and classify new objects or processes by differentiating them into their accidental, specific and diagnostic properties. This kind of truth gains its validity from authentic and documentated observation of individual beings; it has to be detected by research on nature's morphological diversity and by application of heuristic methods. After giving an outline of Orta's life, the structure of the Colloquies` and their reception in Europe, the article tries to identify the plants and drugs discussed and finally concentrates on an exposition of the Aristotelian and the discovery-oriented concept of scientfic truth.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001021494/

Similar Citations

Article Fontes da Costa, Palmira; (2012)
Geographical Expansion and the Reconfiguration of Medical Authority: Garcia de Orta's Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563)

Article Loureiro, Rui Manuel; (2014)
Enter the Milanese Lapidary: Precious Stones in Garcia De Orta's Coloquios dos simples, e drogas he cousas mediçinais da India (Goa, 1563)

Article Wellington Bernardelli Silva Filho; (2016)
A natureza brasílica nas farmacopeias do Frei João de Jesus Maria. The Brazilian nature in Friar João de Jesus Maria's Pharmacopeias

Article Carrasco, Joaquín; (2012)
Remedios zoológicos comunes en De la Materia Médica de Dioscórides (s. I) y el incunable Hortus sanitatis, De animalibus (s. XV) y su pervivencia en la farmacopea actual

Article Davis, Charles; López Terrada, María Luz; (2010)
Protomedicato y farmacia en Castilla a finales del siglo XVI: edición crítica del Catálogo de las cosas que los boticarios han de tener en sus boticas, de Andrés Zamudio de Alfaro, Protomédico general (1592--1599)

Thesis Peralta Reglado, José María de; (cited 2004)
Obras para la instrucción de los boticarios en la España del siglo XVIII: análisis y aportaciones

Article Bastos, Cristiana; (2007)
Medical Hybridisms and Social Boundaries: Aspects of Portuguese Colonialism in Africa and India in the Nineteenth Century

Article Bastos, Cristiana; (2009)
Borrowing, Adapting, and Learning the Practices of Smallpox: Notes from Colonial Goa

Article Rey Bueno, Mar; (2007)
Los Destiladores Reales de los Austrias Españoles (1564-1700)

Article Huguet-Termes, Teresa; (2001)
New World Materia Medica in Spanish Renaissance Medicine: From Scholarly Reception to Practical Impact

Chapter Antonio Sánchez; (2021)
Cosmografia, náutica e conhecimento prático: espaços, práticas e artefactos

Article Mauro Mandrioli; (2023)
Dall'«Antidotarium Bononiense» di Ulisse Aldrovandi alla farmacopea nazionale postunitaria: la lunga storia di un difficile rapporto tra scienza e politica

Article Mariana Sánchez Daza; (2020)
Alchemical and Paracelsian Ideas in the Arte De Los Metales

Article Antonella Romano; (2019)
Iberian Missionaries in God’s Vineyard: Enlarging Humankind and Encompassing the Globe in the Renaissance

Article De Carvalho, Teresa Nobre; (2014)
Local Knowledge in Portuguese Words: Oral and Manuscript Sources of the Colloquies on the Simples by Garcia De Orta

Article Rodrigues, Isilda Teixeira; Fiolhais, Carlos; (2013)
O ensino da medicina na Universidade de Coimbra no século XVI

Article Juan Pimentel; Isabel Soler; (2014)
Painting Naked Truth: The Colóquios of Garcia da Orta (1563)

Article Ted Lars Lennart Bergman; (2020)
Medical Merchandising and Legal Procedure in Late Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Case of Petroleum as Imported Medicine

Article Cobos Bueno, José Miguel; Oyola Fabián, Andrés; García Avila, Juan Fernando; (2010)
El Bálsamo de Francisco Arceo de Fregenal

Article Corriente, Federico; (2004)
Notes on a Recent Edition of a Morisco Pharmalogical MS

Authors & Contributors
Bastos, Cristiana
Carrasco, Joaquín
Cobos Buenos, José Miguel
Corriente, Federico
Davis, Charles H.
Fiolhais, Carlos
Journals
HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Llull: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Historia de las Ciencias y de las Técnicas
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Asclepio: Archivo Iberoamericano de Historia de la Medicina
Azogue: Revista Electrónica Dedicada al Estudio Histórico-Crítico de la Alquimia
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Publishers
Universidad de Alcalá
Tinta da China
Concepts
Medicine
Pharmacy
Formularies; pharmacopoeias
Portugal, colonies
Materia medica
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
People
Orta, Garcia da
Aldrovandi, Ulisse
Barba, Alvaro Alonso
Dioscorides, Pedanios
Jesus Maria, João de
Time Periods
16th century
Renaissance
Early modern
17th century
19th century
18th century
Places
Spain
India
Velha Goa (India)
Portugal
Africa
Brazil
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment