ABSTRACT
The new medical humanists of the late fifteenth century had committed much effort to trying to recreate the original texts of ancient encyclopaedists such as Pliny and Dioscorides, and Orta began his medical education in the midst of the subsequent excitement about the new knowledge, studying at Salamanca and Alcal de Henares, where one of his teachers, Elio Antonio de Nebrija was a famous reformer. Orta was therefore on the cutting edge of the medical studies of his time, moving away from Galenism and toward methods associated with natural history and iatrochemistry. And the fact that Orta shipped along large quantities of a valuable remedy is an example of the deep immersion of early modern physicians in the medical market. Ortas local connections with other medical practitioners along the coast and in the Deccan, and even his ability to draw on medical sources in Arabic, are important, and it has therefore been deservedly noticed.
