Garcia da Orta:
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Garcia da Orta (c.a. 1500 - 1568)
Garcia da Orta (sometimes spelled as "de Orta" or "d'Orta") was born in a small Portuguese village near the Spanish border around the beginning of the sixteenth century. His parents were among the many Spanish Jews which were forced to move to Portugal after the Spanish crown decided to expel all Jews from Spain in 1492. Once in Portugal, however, the da Orta’s converted to Christianity, becoming so-called “New-Christians”. Garcia da Orta was born and raised as a New-Christian and studied medicine at the Spanish university of Salamanca during the 1520s. After having worked as a physician in Portugal for a few years, da Orta boarded a ship to India in 1534 where he became chief physician to Martim Affonso de Sousa, a Portuguese nobleman, explorer and viceroy of the Portuguese establishments in India between 1542 and 1445. Many Spanish and Portuguese noblemen often employed Jewish and New-Christian physicians like da Orta, as they were usually renowned and trustworthy. Yet, working for a nobleman was for a New-Christian like da Orta also a safeguard against the threats of the Inquisition. New-Christians, even those in India, were constantly living under the treat of being accused by the Inquisition for secretly retaining their Jewish religion. But under the wings of Affonso de Sousa, da Orta and his family were safe from any harassment by the Inquisitors.Once in India, da Orta accompanied Affonso de Sousa on a journey until 1538, which led him along the Malabar coast from northern Gujarat to Ceylon in the south (see 5, the map below). After this journey, da Orta settled in Goa, the largest Indian port city under Portuguese control. Here, he lived comfortably in a large house next to his own private botanical garden until his death in 1568. But after his death, da Orta and many members of his family in Goa were accused by the inquisition for secretly being Jewish. The Inquisition even went so far that da Orta's remains were eventually excavated and burned at the stake in 1580. His condemnation by the Inquisition caused also meant that some copies of the Colloquies were burnt at the stake as well. But the Inquisition never managed to fully wipe out da Orta's influence. The Colloquies remained a popular work, and it reached an even wider audience in Europe when Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius made a Latin translation of the Portuguese original in 1567. However, Garcia da Orta's legacy remained greatly neglected in Portuguese history until the late nineteenth century, when nationalist historians reinvented da Orta and turned him into a Portuguese imperial hero.
Garcia da Orta (sometimes spelled as "de Orta" or "d'Orta") was born in a small Portuguese village near the Spanish border around the beginning of the sixteenth century. His parents were among the many Spanish Jews which were forced to move to Portugal after the Spanish crown decided to expel all Jews from Spain in 1492. Once in Portugal, however, the da Orta’s converted to Christianity, becoming so-called “New-Christians”. Garcia da Orta was born and raised as a New-Christian and studied medicine at the Spanish university of Salamanca during the 1520s. After having worked as a physician in Portugal for a few years, da Orta boarded a ship to India in 1534 where he became chief physician to Martim Affonso de Sousa, a Portuguese nobleman, explorer and viceroy of the Portuguese establishments in India between 1542 and 1445. Many Spanish and Portuguese noblemen often employed Jewish and New-Christian physicians like da Orta, as they were usually renowned and trustworthy. Yet, working for a nobleman was for a New-Christian like da Orta also a safeguard against the threats of the Inquisition. New-Christians, even those in India, were constantly living under the treat of being accused by the Inquisition for secretly retaining their Jewish religion. But under the wings of Affonso de Sousa, da Orta and his family were safe from any harassment by the Inquisitors.Once in India, da Orta accompanied Affonso de Sousa on a journey until 1538, which led him along the Malabar coast from northern Gujarat to Ceylon in the south (see 5, the map below). After this journey, da Orta settled in Goa, the largest Indian port city under Portuguese control. Here, he lived comfortably in a large house next to his own private botanical garden until his death in 1568. But after his death, da Orta and many members of his family in Goa were accused by the inquisition for secretly being Jewish. The Inquisition even went so far that da Orta's remains were eventually excavated and burned at the stake in 1580. His condemnation by the Inquisition caused also meant that some copies of the Colloquies were burnt at the stake as well. But the Inquisition never managed to fully wipe out da Orta's influence. The Colloquies remained a popular work, and it reached an even wider audience in Europe when Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius made a Latin translation of the Portuguese original in 1567. However, Garcia da Orta's legacy remained greatly neglected in Portuguese history until the late nineteenth century, when nationalist historians reinvented da Orta and turned him into a Portuguese imperial hero.
Colloquies on the Drugs and Simples of India (1563)
Networking for knowledge: A social network approach to da Orta's Colloquies on the Drugs and Simples of India
For my research, I approached da Orta’s Colloquies with the method of social network analysis . Although social network analysis can be a rather difficult method to explain, it is basically as a set of tools and methods that enable us to analyse structures called social networks, which are sets of nodes and the connections between these nodes. Nodes may for example represent people, organizations or specific departments within organizations. Network relations are hereby the connections which tie the various nodes together in a network in terms of dependencies (Enclyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining, 2014). In the case of my research, I have studied the various network relations which tied da Orta to the various contacts mentioned in his conversation with Ruano.
Why is this network approach fruitful to what we already know about Garcia da Orta or Portuguese colonial science in the sixteenth century? As I already explained in the introduction, Garcia da Orta has for a long period been considered mainly as a “great man of science”, who came, saw, and conquered Asian medical knowledge for the sake of Portuguese imperial prestige. This has been the dominant view of Portuguese “colonial science” for a long time, but recently historians have started to debunk this nationalist and Eurocentric picture of da Orta. Historians have pointed out that a lot of information in the Colloquies was actually common knowledge among various groups in India, such as local Indian physicians, court physicians, and various Portuguese and Indian merchants. Because of his curious attitude and openness to learn from Indians, Muslims and other groups, da Orta was able to extend his knowledge on the medical use of Asian plants and herbs through extensive inquiries and some clever networking.
What follows next are some examples of contacts within da Orta's network and their network relations with da Orta. Although not all of da Orta's contacts are mentioned here, these examples nonetheless give a good example of da Orta's various network relations.
Local Indian physicians from around Goa and the southern Malabar coast were an important source of information for da Orta. Although some of the age-old Indian healing methods seemed strange to European physicians like da Orta, he was nonetheless keen to about their use of certain plants and herbs for curing diseases such as cholera and dysentery. Yet, da Orta noted that these physicians sometimes did not give away their secret methods. An example of this is the use of opium, which Indian physicians used to cure cholera. However, da Orta learned these secret methods simply via Portuguese patients who were cured by the local physicians, and thus functioned as important intermediaries. Many Portuguese who fell ill to tropical diseases like cholera, were often very enthusiastic when they told da Orta about the cures of Indian physicians. This was mainly because the some of the cures from Indian physicians were usually more effective compared to the Portuguese treatments. Long-time experience with tropical diseases, such as cholera in this case, caused Indian physicians to be far ahead of their Portuguese colleagues when it came to developing cures.
But the local Indian physicians were not the only medical practitioners da Orta met in India. Through the journey he made alongside his master Martim Affonso de Sousa, he came into contact with Indian rulers, such as Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat, and the Nizam Shah rulers of the Ahmednagar Sultanate. These Indian rulers employed numerous physicians, often from foreign lands, to work in their court. Da Orta managed to become friends with these Indian rulers, and thereby came into contact with court physicians, which were a great source of information. The court physicians he wrote about the most, were those at the Nizam Shah court. The Nizam Shah rulers and their physicians were all Muslim, with many physicians of Arab, Persian and Turkish descent. Yet, as a New-Christian, da Orta remained tolerant and showed great sympathy towards these learned men, who often knew a lot more about the origin and use of Asian plants and herbs compared to da Orta. They taught da Orta that many plants and herbs from India were already used for medical purposes in the Middle East for centuries, and were sold on Arab and Persian markets. But, they also taught da Orta some of their ways to use Indian plants and herbs medically. One Nizam Shah court physicians, whose name was Mula Ucem, learned da Orta how to use an Indian herb named zedoary to relieve painful wounds, and how to turn it into an effective antidote against poison.
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As with the Nizam Shah court physicians, many of the informants that comprised da Orta’s network were not Indian at all. Many of his contacts were in fact Portuguese countrymen, navigators, travellers or merchants. One of da Orta’s famous Portuguese contacts was navigator Diogo Pereira, who had sailed along the East-African Coast and was the first European to visit islands such as Socotra and Madagascar (see the map above). He also had contact with Jewish physicians and apothecaries, which came to India from Jerusalem and other regions in the Middle East, such as Damascus. Here, many Jewish physicians settled after their expulsion from Spain during the late fifteenth century. Da Orta had a specific reason for seeking contact with well-travelled people, especially those who came from the Middle East. This was because many Indian plants and herbs were already described in medical treatises by ancient and medieval scholars, such as Persian scholar Avicenna. But da Orta wanted to know for sure whether these plants and herbs truly originated from India, or whether they existed in other parts of the world as well. But as da Orta was not much of great traveller himself (he only made one journey through India after his arrival, but never went outside of India) he had to inquire among Jewish physicians and apothecaries from the Middle East, whether they knew about the existence of certain plants and herbs in their home regions. The Arab, Persian and Turkish court physicians, also functioned as important informants for such kind of information. Da Orta was also eager to learn from Diogo Pereira’s journeys to East-Africa. In this case, he was mainly interested in the products that were sold on the markets along the East-African shore. Pereira told da Orta that ambergris, which is a natural product from the intestines of sperm whales (vomit), was a popular product sold on the market in Ethiopia. This ambergris was often sold to Chinese merchants, as it was greatly valued for its medical benefits in China,
That Chinese merchants sailed all the way to the East-African coast to purchase certain goods, shows an important link of the trade network between the eastern and western Indian Ocean. But Chinese merchants already sailed to East-Africa and India during the early fifteenth century. In fact, long before the Portuguese even arrived in India, trade between the eastern and western Indian Ocean already thrived for many decades, with India functioning as a major centre of trade due to its perfect midway location. When the Portuguese arrived in Asia, all they did was assimilate into this intra-Asian trade network between East and West, with India as their main centre of operations. Da Orta was well-acquainted with this intra-Asian trade network, because apart from a scholar, he was also a man of business. He often inquired among Portuguese merchants who sailed to China, Malacca or the Indonesian archipelago, which plants and herbs could be obtained there, what they could be used for, and whether they were valued on the market or not. He also wandered around on marketplaces in Indian port cities, where he spoke to local Indian Banyan merchants. These Banyan merchants were a great source of information to da Orta, as they could tell him a lot about the medical benefits of the various plants and herbs they sold, but also whether they were popular among Portuguese customers in India. Certain products like China Root, which as the name suggests was imported from China, received a lot of praise in the Colloquies for its healing effects. But there are many more of such examples in the Colloquies, wherein da Orta sings praise about the benefits of certain Asian plants and herbs. In many of these cases, he also and suggests to export these plants and herbs to Europe, which clearly reveal his commercial mind-set. The Colloquies was therefore not only an important scientific work, but also meant to advertise and eventually boost the sales of Asian plants and herbs for medical use. Staying in touch with the intra-Asian trade network was therefore vital to da Orta, and merchants were his ideal contacts to stay up to date.
To conclude
Garcia da Orta's Colloquies is a great book for anyone interested in the history of medical science. The many discussions between da Orta and his fictional companion Ruano reveal a lot about the scientific and commercial mind-set of that time. But although da Orta is still seen as an extraordinary man of science, we must not overlook his wide network of informants. The network relations which tied da Orta to these informants were as various as the array of informants itself. Local Indian physicians and their patients taught da Orta about the medical use of certain Asian plants and herbs, travelling Jewish apothecaries and court physicians from the Middle East informed him whether certain plants also existed in their home regions, and merchants kept da Orta informed on which medicinal plants and herbs were valued most on the markets . All these informants were indispensable to da Orta's research, without whom he would have never been able to write the work that would seal his name in the history of colonial science. The picture of colonial science in Asia should therefore be perceived in a wider context, for Da Orta's quest for Asian medical knowledge was not just a European adventure, but an example of the exchange of knowledge by various groups of people from different cultures and societies.
D.J.M.
Suggestions for further reading
On Garcia da Orta and the Colloquies:
Fontes da Costa, Palmira, ed. Medicine, Trade and Empire: Garcia de Orta's Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India (1563) in context .Farnham: Ashgate, 2015.
Fontes da Costa, Palmira. "Geographical expansion and the reconfiguration of medical authority: Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563)." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 43, no. 1 (March 2012): 74-81.
Soler, Isabel and Juan Pimentel. "Painting Naked Truth: The Colóquios of Garcia da Orta (1563)." Journal of Early Modern History 18, no. 1 (2014): 101-120.
On colonial science in Asia:
Arnold, David, ed. Warm climates and Western medicine: the emergence of tropical medicine, 1500-1900 .Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.
Bleichmar, Daniela, ed. Science in the Spanish and Portuguese empires, 1500-1800 .Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
Grove, Richard. "Indigenous Knowledge and the Significance of South-West India for Portuguese and Dutch Constructions of Tropical Nature." Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 1 (February 1996): 121-143.
Raj, Kapil. Relocating modern science : circulation and the construction of knowledge in South Asia and Europe, 1650-1900 .Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
On the Portuguese Empire in India/Asia:
Pearson, M.N. The Portuguese in India .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Portuguese empire in Asia, 1500-1700 : a political and economic history .London/New York: Longman, 1993.
Images used on this page:
1) http://www.catedra-alberto-benveniste.org/agendanoticias.asp?id=116
2) http://dererummundi.blogspot.nl/2007/05/garcia-da-orta.html
3) http://luismanueltudella.blogspot.nl/2012/11/artigo-100-esc-udos-bimetalica-garcia.html
4) http://www.mundonaescola.pt/?page_id=10009
5) http://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=3247&lang=en (blank map edited by myself)
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadnagar_Sultanate#/media/File:Indischer_Maler_um_1565_001.jpg
7) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMH-6598-KB_View_of_the_market_in_Goa.jpg
8) http://fotos.sapo.pt/armandoisaac/fotos/?uid=gyFhiKrtr1bffryrKWwO
9) https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardim_Garcia_d%27_Orta#/media/File:Jardim_Garcia_D%27Orta.jpg