João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, better known as Amato Lusitano and Amatus Lusitanus (1511–1568), was a notable
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
of the 16th century. He is sometimes is said to have discovered the valves in the vena azygos.
Life
Lusitano was born in 1511 in
Castelo Branco,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. He was a descendant of a
Marrano family called ''Chabib'' (= ''Amatus'', "beloved" in Latin), and was brought up in the Jewish faith. After having graduated with honors as M.D. from the
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is t ...
, he was unable to return
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
for fear of the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
. He went to
Antwerp for a time and then traveled through the
Netherlands
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, finally settling in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. His reputation as one of the most skillful physicians of his time preceded him there, and during his short sojourn at
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, where he came in contact with the physician and philosopher
Jacob Mantino, he attended the niece of Pope Julius III and other distinguished personages.
In the 1540s Amatus was in
Ferrara, where
Giambattista Canano one of the leading anatomists of the time was performing numerous dissections. According to Amato they dissected twelve cadavers in a single year but it is unclear whether Amato was actively participating or only watching. He later reported Canano's finding of a valve at the beginning of the
azygos vein
The azygos vein is a vein running up the right side of the thoracic vertebral column draining itself towards the superior vena cava. It connects the systems of superior vena cava and inferior vena cava and can provide an alternative path for blo ...
which Canano had made on this occasion and has for this reason sometimes mistakenly taken for the discoverer of the venous valves. During his sojourn in Ferrara, which lasted for six years, Amatus Lusitanus received an invitation from the King of Poland to move to that country, which he declined, preferring to settle in
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
, where religious tolerance existed.
Meanwhile, his reputation grew higher and higher. Jacoba del Monte, sister of
Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III ( la, Iulius PP. III; it, Giulio III; 10 September 1487 – 23 March 1555), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 February 1550 to his death in March 155 ...
, was one of his patients; and he prescribed also for Julius himself, to whose sick-bed he was later summoned.
With the accession of Paul IV, Amatus underwent all the sufferings which the Marranos of Ancona had to endure from this pope. He took refuge in
Pesaro, leaving behind him all his possessions, including several manuscript works, the loss of which he greatly deplored. One of these manuscripts, however, the fifth part of his ''Centuriæ'', was later restored to him and published. During his sojourn at Pesaro he received an invitation from the municipality of
Ragusa,
The medical practice of Amatus Lusitanus in Dubrovnik (1556-1558)
by MARIJA-ANA DÜRRIGL, STELLA FATOVIC-FERENCIC, Department for the History of Medicine. Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Old Church Slavonic Institute, Zagreb. Croatia After staying for some months he left the city for Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, which then had a large Jewish community and was part of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
; there he openly professed the Jewish faith and finally died in 1568.
Work
Amato reported Canano's discovery of a valve at the beginning of the Azygos vein
The azygos vein is a vein running up the right side of the thoracic vertebral column draining itself towards the superior vena cava. It connects the systems of superior vena cava and inferior vena cava and can provide an alternative path for blo ...
and due to this report has by some scholars wrongly been praised as the discoverer of the venous valves or indeed the blood circulation. In the Centuria I, paragraph (Curatio) 513, he described the function of this valve, which Canano - who had also discovered valves in other veins - apparently demonstrated to some scholars from the University of Ferrara
The University of Ferrara ( it, Università degli Studi di Ferrara) is the main university of the city of Ferrara in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. In the years prior to the First World War the University of Ferrara, with more than 5 ...
. Amato's account is profoundly flawed, however, suggesting that he had the description from hearsay and was not present in person. He claimed that if air was blown into the lower part of the azygos the vena cava would not be inflated because the valve was in the way. The valve works exactly the other way round, however. According to modern understanding, it prevents a reflux of blood from the vena cava into the vena azygos. Air would therefore quite easily pass from the vena azygos to the vena cava but not in the opposite direction.
Amatus enriched medical literature with several valuable works which for a long time enjoyed the highest reputation. Among these the most important was his ''Centuriæ'', in which he published accounts of his cases and their treatment. This work, in seven volumes, entitled ''Curationum Medicinalium Centuriæ Septem'', passed through a number of editions (Florence, 1551; Venice, 1552, 1557, 1560, 1653; Basel, 1556; Leyden, 1560, 1570; Paris, 1620; Bordeaux, 1620; Barcelona, 1628). His other works were: ''Index Dioscoridis'' (1536); ''Enegemata in Duos Priores Dioscoridis de Arte Medica Libros'' (Antwerp, 1536); ''In Dioscorides de Medica materia Librum quinque enarrationis'' (1556); ''Commentatio de Introitu Medici ad Ægrotantem'', (Venice, 1557); ''De Crisi et Diebus Decretoriis'', (Venice, 1557); ''In Dioscoridis Anazarbei de Medica Materia Libros Quinque'', (Venice, 1557; Leyden, 1558); ''Enarrationes Eruditissimæ'', (Venice, 1553); ''La Historia de Eutropio'' (Eutropius translated into Spanish); commentary on the first book of Avicenna's Canon, which, as he relates in the preface to the seventh ''Centuria'', he lost among his possessions at Ancona.
References
Amatus Lusitanus discovered valves in veins and arteries; by David Hashavit
citation: "There's a reasonable basis to assume that it was Dr. Amatus who first discovered the "Blood circulation" phenomena."
* Michael Stolberg: Gabrielle Falloppia 1522/23-1562. The life and work of a Renaissance anatomist. London and New York: Routledge 2022 (copyright 2023), 55-57.
* Harry Friedenwald: ''Amatus Lusitanus''. In: Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, vol. 5, no. 7, July 1937, p. 603-653
* Wolf, Johann Christoph, ''Bibliotheca Hebræa'' i. 200
* Carmoly, Eliakim, in ''Revue Orientale'', ii. 200
*David, Ernest, in ''Archives Israélites'', 1880
*''Allg. Zeit. des Jud.'' 1880, pp. 668, 684, 749
* Steinschneider, Moritz, ''Die Hebräischen Übersetzungen'' p. 686;
* Hermann Vogelstein and Paul Rieger
Paul Warren Rieger (born ) is a former New Zealand local-body politician. He served as mayor of Palmerston North from 1985 to 1998, and was a member of the Horizons Regional Council between 1998 and 2019.
Rieger served on the Council of Massey ...
, ''Geschichte der Juden in Rom'', ii. 256
External links
*
Short biography
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lusitano, Amatus
1511 births
1568 deaths
People from Castelo Branco, Portugal
16th-century Portuguese physicians
16th-century Jewish physicians
16th-century Italian physicians
16th-century Latin-language writers
Portuguese Renaissance writers
Portuguese anatomists
Jewish physicians
Jewish biologists
University of Salamanca alumni
University of Ferrara alumni
16th-century Portuguese Jews
16th-century Italian Jews
Sephardi Jews from the Ottoman Empire
Italian Sephardi Jews
Italian people of Portuguese descent
Greek people of Portuguese descent
Portuguese emigrants to the Ottoman Empire
Medieval Jewish physicians of Portugal