ABSTRACT

This chapter demonstrates the comparative study of the tribulations of Garcia de Orta and Amato Lusitano, who left Portugal because they were New Christians for parts of the world that were very distant, but increasingly interlinked, due to the global circulation of people, merchandise and knowledge, is of major importance in understanding many aspects of their work. Orta left for the East, while Lusitano embarked on a long journey through the West, passing through towns such as Antwerp, Ferrara, Ancona, Florence, Rome, Dubrovnik and Salonica. Both had been educated in Salamanca and shared, in very different locations and circumstances, a passion for materia medica, as can be seen in the excellence and innovation of their works describing ancient and modern medicinal products. Throughout the Colloquies, Orta reveals an exceptional knowledge of works dedicated to materia medica, not only the conventional and compulsory Greek and Arab authors, headed by Dioscorides, Pliny and Avicenna, but also contemporary authors.