A sixteenth-century critical review of the book of medical letters by Garcia Lopes

Abstract

Garcia Lopes, a New Christian physician born in Portalegre, published a miscellaneous volume, in epistolary form, dealing with various medical topics, during his short stay in the emporium of the Scheldt (Antwerp, 1564). Both the author and the book returned to Portugal: the author is known to have ended his days tragically in an auto da fé celebrated in Évora, in 1572; as for the only book Lopes published in Latin, there was no information to date regarding its reception in the academic and scientific circles of the kingdom. However, Jorge Godines, a court physician during the reigns of King John III and King Sebastian, organized a magnificent codex of epistolae medicinales, in which he included an authentic critical review of Garcia Lopes' book, under the suggestive title Summa quaedam eorum quae aduertimus in libello Garciae Lopii, or “Summary of what we criticized in Garcia Lopes' booklet”. The present study focuses specifically on the analysis of this remarkable text, in the context of the manifest relationship it establishes with the work under scrutiny, bringing to light a heated scientific between two contemporary Portuguese physicians, examining and appraising the different criticisms and comments made by Jorge Godines to the chapters of Garcia Lopes' book, and therefore revealing the richness, the acuteness and the actuality of the medical debate in 16^th century Portugal.