Amato Lusitano

Amato Lusitano ( Latinized Amatus Lusitanus ), João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco actually (* 1511 in Castelo Branco, † 1568 in Thessaloniki ), was a Portuguese- Jewish physician and botanist. He is regarded as one of the discoverers of the blood circulation.

Life

Amato Lusitano was born in 1511 in a Marrano family in Castelo Branco ( Portugal). In Spain, he studied medicine at the University of Salamanca, where he earned his degree in 1530 with a doctorate degree. After his return to Portugal, he practiced initially in Lisbon. As the situation of the Marrano doctors deteriorated rapidly, he fled in 1533 to Antwerp. Three years later he published under his Christian name Johannus Rodericus the medicinal botanical index Dioscorides.

After living in the Netherlands and France Amatus was appointed in 1540 by Ercole II d' Este at the University of Ferrara, where he also be operated as an assistant to Giovan Battista Canano in anatomy.

1547 he left Ferrara towards Ancona to (today Dubrovnik) to answer the call as city physician of Ragusa. In Ancona, he was stopped, the sister of Pope Julius III. medical supply. Some times he had to treat diseases of the Pope.

After the election of Paul IV Pope ( 1555), the situation of the Marranos of Ancona deteriorated. Amato fled to Pesaro in 1556 and took two years its place in Ragusa true. In 1558 he moved on to Thessaloniki, where he could openly confess to Judaism. He died in 1568 of the plague.

Works

• Amati Lusitani curationum medicinalium centuriae I-VII
• Amati Lusitani, medici physici praestantissimi, Curationum medicinalium
• In Dioscoridis De materia medica libros quinque Enarrationes Amati Lusitani