The Humorous Devil
Sorcery, Occult Virtues and the Evil Eye
in 18
th-Century Portuguese Medicine
José Carlos Vieira Leitão Stud.no. 10879064
Religious Studies and Theology Thesis (MRes) Supervisor: Prof. Peter Forshaw Second Reader: Prof. Marco Pasi
University of Amsterdam
August 2016
Index:
1. Introduction 1
2. Portuguese Academic Learning and Religious Institutionalism 4
3. Studied Authors 7
3.1. João Curvo Semedo (1635 – 1719) 8
3.2. Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (1665 – 1731) 15 3.3. Bernardo Pereira (1681 – after 1759) 20 4. Occult Virtues, Evil Eye and Sorcery in 18th-Century Portuguese Medicine 25
4.1. Determining the Field of Study 25
4.2. Amulets and Occult Virtues 29
4.3. Divine and Heavenly Healing 36
4.4. Natural Evil Eye 42
4.5. Diabolical Evil Eye and Sorcery 51
5. Conclusions 62
1
1. Introduction
While for long periods in its history Iberia had been considered one of the centers of European medical learning, by the 18th century its particular history had left it lagging behind the rest of Enlightenment Europe. With its shining examples of Hispano-Arabic pharmacology1 and the 10th-century medical translations and commentaries to Dioscorides,2 Petrus Hispanus’ Thesaurus Pauperum or the later Lusitani Jewish physicians,3 while keeping on par with most of the continent up until the end of the 16th century, a sequence of historical events made the main institutions of Iberian medical learning grow increasingly more traditionalistic and entrenched in their support of strict Galenism.4
Before this period, taking Portugal as an example, innovative anti-Galenic physicians can be seen to have frequently published and promoted non-classicist medical ideas, such as Garcia Lopes (1520-1572)5 or the much more relevant Garcia da Orta (1501-1568). But these ideas seem to become increasingly more restricted with the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536 and the reforms implemented at the University of Coimbra in 1537 and 1538 by John III, which effectively bridged the gap between the Coimbra faculty of medicine and its course of strict Aristotelian philosophy. With the subsequent integration of the Coimbra Jesuit College into the university structure, this further guaranteed that all students pursuing a higher education in Coimbra could only do so by going through a fixed Jesuit educational program6 extremely adverse to change or innovation.
Shortly after, with the loss of Portuguese independence to the Castilian crown due to the disappearance of King Sebastian (1554-1578), and the resulting cultural and political proximity of both Iberian nations, the number of medical students and practitioners able to leave the peninsula in order to study abroad, as well as the
1
Burke, The Royal College of San Carlos, 19.
2
Gomes, História da Filosofia Portuguesa: A Filosofia Arábico-Portuguesa, 170.
3 Maclean, ‘Lusitani Periti,’ 392. 4 Maclean, ‘Lusitani Periti,’ 387.
5 Ornellas e Castro, ‘Prática Médica e Alimentação nos Textos Portugueses
Seiscentistas,’ 83.
6
Sander, ‘Medical Topics in De anima Commentary of Coimbra (1598) and the Jesuits’ Attitude Towards Medicine in Education and Natural Philosophy,’ 93-94.
2
number of foreign masters hired to teach in Portugal, drastically dropped.7 Consequently, this resulted in a homogenization in Iberian medicine during this unification period, with medical masters of a strong Galenic background mostly exchanging positions between Alcalá, Coimbra or any of the other Iberian universities managed by the Company of Jesus.8 While Portuguese and Spanish innovative anti-Galenic physicians could still be found throughout Europe in several positions of prestige, these would typically be Jewish exiles banished by the Iberian policies of ‘blood purity’, which also aided in the support of classical Galenism as a ‘pure’ (non-Jewish) form of medicine in Iberia.
Emerging from the unification period in 1640, the implementation of a strong and influential Inquisition in Portugal meant that a strict and efficient control of ideas hailing from Northern Protestant Europe had been established.9 One of the ways in which this translated itself was in an active repression of medical literature which was too contradictory towards the established Catholic conception of the body and the universe,10 especially as transmitted by the Coimbra medical faculty, which, according to Timothy Walker, by the end of the 17th century had complex ties with the Inquisition.11
As also pointed out by Walker, analyzing medical literature as we move into the 17th century reveals that most medical concepts and preoccupations were still largely framed by ‘ancient’ or classical concepts of humor balance/imbalance. Furthermore, given this intellectual blockade of literature and ideas, Iberian intellectual development had entered a self-referential loop, with several instances of folk healing/magic practices seeping into and being divulged by university trained physicians as legitimate options for the acquisition of health12 (often times rationalized
7
Amorim da Costa, ‘Da Farmácia Galénica à Farmácia Química no Portugal Setecentista,’ 23.
8 Maclean, ‘Lusitani Periti,’ 386.
9 Bethencourt, ‘Portugal: A Scrupulous Inquisition,’ 408. 10 Costa, ‘Os Livros e a Ordem do Saber Médico,’ 25-26. 11
Walker, ‘Physicians and Surgeons in the Service of the Inquisition,’ 31.
12
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by the academic label of ‘occult virtues’), as has been indicated, too, by Isabel Drumond Braga.13
However, one should be careful in proposing a simple one-sided approach by academically trained physicians towards magical or folk medical practices. Concepts arising from learned Galenic medicine (or more particularly Arabic Galenism) can also be observed to, with equal ease, seep into folk medical practices; a process which is likely to have had its beginning many centuries before. As pointed out by Michael Solomon for the Spanish case in the early modern period, the rise in popularity of vernacular medical books (such as the ones discussed in the current thesis) also brought with it the mechanisms for a rapid appropriation of academic medical knowledge by non-academically trained healers.14 This suggests a double-sided approach which resulted in a gradual proximity in concepts and overall language between physicians and folk healers.
Focusing now on the scenario of medical knowledge production in 18th-century Portugal, we finally come to a situation where the long established canons of medicine (static in the University of Coimbra since 1597)15 begin to be questioned by a new emergent medical class increasingly aware of European Enlightenment paradigms. Through the very networks of the Inquisition, these same physicians would finally gain access to new non-Iberian medical and scientific texts and begin to revise their long-standing Galenic concepts. This, coupled with the increasing pressure of medical knowledge coming from America and Asia, results in what might be called a period of Transitional Medicine 16 ; a moment when individual physicians, begin to reconceptualize and rethink their own position and opinion concerning the ‘ancients’ and the ‘moderns’. These, establishing informal academies and extensive
13
Drumond Braga, ‘Medicina Popular versus Medicina Universitaria en el Portugal de Juan V (1705-1750),’ 2210-211.
14
Solomon, Fictions of Well-Being, 10.
15
Drumond Braga, ‘Medicina Popular versus Medicina Universitaria en el Portugal de Juan V (1705-1750),’ 211.
16 This same period is sometimes referred to in Portuguese scientific history as the
‘Medical Baroque’ (see Pita, História da Farmácia, 155). I personally disagree with this definition since this period doesn’t seem to have any inherent stability that would allow it to be considered as a concretely defined moment in Portuguese medical history. Rather, it seems much more similar to a process of progressive change from one medical paradigm into another.
4
correspondence networks in and outside of Iberia, begin an active production of literature meant to aid in the reformation and modernization of Portuguese medical knowledge, offering at times very personal and culturally located reading of the functioning of the body and the universe. This results in the creation of fascinating examples of medical practice not only organized along (Catholic) confessional lines (an occurrence which is perhaps better observed in 17th-century England)17 but also aiming at representing a certain aspect of proud national identity and uniqueness (along the tradition of the 17th-century Lusitani Periti).18
The current thesis focuses on three such physicians: João Curvo Semedo (1635 – 1719), Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (1665 – 1731) and Bernardo Pereira (1681 – after 1759), each occupying their own position along the spectrum of tradition versus innovation. In particular, this thesis seeks to explore how these figures, in this transitional period, conceptualize the overlap of medical knowledge and religion on such topics as sorcery, occult virtues and the evil eye.
2. Portuguese Academic Learning and Religious Institutionalism
It is important to emphasize that this thesis is not interested in exploring the backwardness of 18th-century Portuguese medical theory and practice; it is rather concerned with the complicated articulations Portuguese rational medical discourse had to go through when confronted with the opposing realities of Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe and its own academic isolation. It is about the construction of medical and rational paradigms which could accommodate not only the most modern scientific concepts but also the most solid academic traditionalism and the always ambiguous certainty of the existence of immaterial and unseen forces with effective power over the lives of humans, constantly enforced by the ruling institutions of religious (be it the Church or the Inquisition) and academic power (the University of Coimbra or the Jesuits). Consequently, the various authors discussed here should not be simply considered as ignorant or gullible, but rather as truly conscious of the two mutually excluding worlds of which they were a part. Be it due to genuine faith, love of
17 Elmer, ‘Medicine, Witchcraft and the Politics of Healing in Late-Seventeenth-Century
England,’ 226.
18
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knowledge, fear of persecution or brash iconoclasm, theirs was an existential struggle for balance and truth to which very little academic attention has been paid.
It should be kept in mind that at all moments of this process of apparent intellectual ‘stagnation’ and decay, there were always individuals in both Portugal and Spain who were quite aware of the contrast between their nations and those beyond the Pyrenees and of the existence of outdated and contradicting scientific paradigms within their environment. In fact, this situation was not in any way limited to Iberia, as this phenomenon can be observed, in different degrees, to have happened in various European countries, with university-based education consistently falling short of coming to terms with new medical innovations which were rather discussed in private academies and circles.19
What can perhaps be considered to be the particularity of the Iberian case on the European scale is that this coexistence of contradicting paradigms was maintained until a much later date due to forces that actively prevented their natural resolution into a new medical paradigm, creating a somewhat schizophrenic environment between the official discourses of scholarly institutions (continuously dominated by Aristotelian conceptions) and, often, the very scholars within these institutions. This ultimately resulted in a visible institutional staleness but an invisible individual progressiveness.
Focusing on the three studied authors, to understand their overall medical world view, and how this will eventually influence their understanding and conception of sorcery and related concepts, a certain degree of attention should be given to the University of Coimbra, where all three attained their medical degrees. Not focusing too much on its overall history, the form this institution came to assume after the 16th century (and which still today stands as the basis for all Portuguese universities) can be seen to influence not only the medical concepts of its students, but more important, their spiritual and religious opinions.
This, as stated, is intimately related to a series of reforms in education and the University itself by King John III20 in 1555 and Queen Catherine of Austria21 in 1560
19 Burke, The Royal College of San Carlos, 33. 20
Gomes, Os Conimbricenses, 18.
21
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which ultimately resulted in the Company of Jesus acquiring the capacity to overpower the University and restructure it as a Jesuit school.
As the Jesuits enter the University of Coimbra, they are forced into an initially uncomfortable coexistence with the already established Dominicans,22 which will eventually lead to the creation of an extremely long lasting bridge between the University, the Inquisition (equally established in 1536 by John III and under the charge of the Dominicans) and the Jesuits; an anti-Protestant triumvirate which will monopolize and control the major part of Portuguese institutional intellectual development for two hundred years, particularly in regards to the topics of medical innovation and conceptions of magic, as pointed out in Walker’s Doctors, Folk
Medicine and the Inquisition.
This resulted in every single student of Coimbra having as his philosophical base the remarkable commentaries to Aristotle issued by the Coimbra Jesuits, the Comentarii
Collegii Conimbricencis Societatis Iesu (published between 1592 and 1606), the flagship
of Jesuit Aristotelianism which would eventually be used worldwide in both Jesuit and non-Jesuit schools.23 This meant that all general scientific conceptions learned at Coimbra were par excellence Aristotelian, and, consequently, implicitly bound to the Galenic conceptions of healing and the body as also to the Catholic conception of the Universe and the place of God and the Devil in it.
Still, to those Coimbra doctors who could see through the established medical-religious models, there were still alternatives for the acquisition of non-orthodox knowledge. Following one of Timothy Walker’s main theses in regards to the overlap of the Coimbra University and the Inquisition, the proximity between these two institutions actually created the conditions for a surprising mechanism of medical innovation and the coexistence of medicine and magic within the same physical and intellectual spaces.
In the 18th century, as more and more physicians become aware of the new Enlightenment rational paradigms, many start to seek the position of Inquisition
Familiares, lay cooperators of non-specified activity but frequently associated with
22 Braga, Historia da Universidade de Coimbra, Vol. 1, 264. 23
Sander, ‘Medical Topics in De anima Commentary of Coimbra (1598) and the Jesuits’ Attitude Towards Medicine in Education and Natural Philosophy,’ 80.
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information gathering on any case which seemed to belong to the Inquisition’s jurisdiction.24 Physician Familiares could in fact instrumentalize the Inquisition for the persecution of folk and magic healers seen as direct professional competitors and, in the process, continuously accommodate such practices into the cosmovision offered by their Catholic-Aristotelian formation. Not only this, but the position of Familiar could also favor a ‘modern’ doctor on an individual level through access to forbidden literature, be it scientific or religious. Book censorship was equally a large part of Inquisitional activity, ranging from Inquisitorial visitations to bookshops, printing houses and newly ported ships in Portugal.25 Given the social and legal advantages of being a Familiar, the position not only protected innovative physicians from excessive prying from book censorship visitations but also provided a privileged position for the acquisition of forbidden literature.26 However, this forbidden literature, as also observed by Francisco Bethencourt,27 could only be assimilated individually; it could not be quoted, integrated into new works or serve any function where it could produce an effective change in society at large. Likewise, even if innovative medical or religious books (either produced within or outside Iberia) could change the perspective of individual medical practitioners, these could not affect their general environment or the very teaching of medicine in Coimbra or any other university which had a completely unchangeable curriculum. This, as stated, even when the individuals reading such novel books were the very professors behind these institutions.28
3. Studied authors
Following from the state of medical learning in Coimbra,and Jonathan Israel’s reading of the Enlightenment ‘revolution’, it seems that from the mid 17th to the mid 18th century, Portuguese medical authors mostly fell somewhere in what this scholar refers to as the moderate Enlightenment.29 Far from any extreme, what we find is a very
24
Torres, ‘Da Repressão Religiosa para a Promoção Social,’ 120.
25 Bethencourt, The Inquisition, 226-227.
26 Walker, Doctors, Folk Medicine and the Inquisition, 103. 27 Bethencourt, The Inquisition, 233.
28 Walker, Doctors, Folk Medicine and the Inquisition, 100-101. 29
Israel, ‘Enlightenment, Radical Enlightenment and the ‘Medical Revolution’ of late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century,’ 6.
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large middle ground of constant compromise between worldviews. This slow transition and change in mentalities also signified that, while there was an obvious tension between the ‘ancients’ and ‘moderns’, there was never a grand dramatic controversy with two groups being divided along a clear and tangible border.30
Focusing now on the three studied authors (João Curvo Semedo, Francisco da Fonseca Henriques and Bernardo Pereira), one aspect which cannot be underestimated in these, and which is fundamental for an understanding of their writings, is the ultimate reality of Christianity. These three authors, while aiming for a rational approach to medicine, do not remove themselves from a sacred system or sacred conception of the world in which Catholicism, with its miraculous blessings, saints, materia sacra and sorcery, are an accepted part of reality (whether they fully subscribed to Catholic dogma or not). This then creates another layer of compromise between faith and reason and to what extent these authors are willing to concede to the existence of supernatural forces which could affect human health and the material world in general. It is this back and forth of faith which this thesis hopes to ultimately explore; to what extent and in what ways supernatural agencies, occult forces and divine mysteries are sacrificed or renegotiated to naturalistic explanations and how these relate to the personal understanding of the universe in an extremely heterogeneous intellectual environment of melting borders.
3.1. João Curvo Semedo (1635 - 1719)
That on which scruples could trip is in the doctrine of some remedies, which appear superstitious, & in others as contrary to good customs, unless one would see the care with which the Author, who is not a disciple of Paracelsus, or Helmont, but a Familiar of the Holy Office, writes them down; for of some he says that he is unaware that they have a pact, neither does one find in them nonsensical words, useless figures, unknown Angelic names, Physical or moral falsehoods, nor promises of unfailing effects, which may exceed the
30
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power of these means, & which should not be applied without consulting a Confessor who is greatly learned and prudent.31
Following the (at times unreliable) information given by Diogo Barbosa Machado in his
Biblioteca Lusitana (Lusitanian/Portuguese Library, an 18th-century dictionary of Portuguese authors), João Curvo Semedo (alternatively spelled Joam Curvo Semmedo, Joaõ Curvo Semmedo, the Castilian Juan Curbo Semmedo or the Latin Joannes Curvus Semmedus) was born in Monforte (Alentejo) on the first of December of 1635. He began his academic career in Lisbon at the Jesuit Colégio de Santo Antão,32 probably the most scientifically oriented school in Portugal at the time, covering the fields of physics, mathematics and applied sciences.33 Proceeding from here to the University of Coimbra, Curvo Semedo enrolls in medicine and, having been soon recognized for his intelligence, after the completion of his course began practicing in the Lisbon court, becoming a doctor of the Royal House.34
Curvo Semedo can be said to be one of the most influential physicians of his time, with some of his fame and books having reached beyond the Portuguese borders. His influence and authority can also be verified by the fact that, during his life, he was made a knight of the Order of Christ as well as a Familiar of the Holy Office.35
Regarding his published work, of relevance for the current thesis is firstly the
Polyanthea Medicinal from 1697 (Medicinal Anthology, with reprints in 1704, 1716,
1727 and 1741),36 likely his most influential book. This stands as his magum opus, and it sets the tone for all of Curvo Semedo’s subsequent works, which at times seem
31
‘Só em que poderia tropeçar o escrupulo he a doutrina de alguns remedios, que parecem supersticiosos, & outros contrários aos bons costumes, se senaõ vira a cautela comque o Autor, que naõ he disciplo de Paracelso, ou Helmoncio, mas Familia do Santo Officio, os escreve; porque de huns diz que naõ sabe que tenhaõ pacto, nem se lhes acha palavras naõ significativas, figuras inuteis, nomes desconhecidos de Anjos, falsidades Fysicas, ou moraes, nem promessa de efeito infalível, que exceda a força dos meyos, & que senaõ apliquem sem se consultar Confessor grande letrado, & prudente,’ in Santo Agostinho, Joaõ de (M.Fr.), ‘Licenças do Santo Officio,’ in Curvo Semmedo, Atalaya da Vida Contra as Hostilidades da Morte.
32 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 2, 643. 33 Leitão, ‘Sphæra Mundi,’ 19.
34 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 2, 643. 35
Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 2, 643.
36
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almost like further explanations, clarifications or examples of his system of healing put down in the Polyanthea. The book itself is divided into three treatises: the first one focuses on the virtues of vomit, on which he prescribes Quintilio powders (antimony) as an almost universal cure, which is nonetheless placed on semi-equal footing with the ‘Gilla of Theophrastus’ (white vitriol or zink sulfite). From here he takes the lead into the second, which is precisely on the virtues and medical uses of antimony. This is by far the longest part of the book, and in it he apparently prescribes this remedy for every single known disease, also offering numerous alternative remedies, be they ‘ancient’, ‘modern’ or his own original ones. The third and final treatise is on the usefulness and virtues of chymistry, which does not add much to the book in terms of medical practice, but is essentially Curvo Semedo placing himself on the side of the ‘moderns’ versus the ‘ancients’.
Taking a step back from his preference for writing in Portuguese (to, in his own words, aid those living in villages and towns without a physician and solely supplied with incompetent Barbers or Surgeons)37 the next book of relevance is the Observationes
aegritudinum fere incurabilium, printed in 1718. However, in 1727 this book is once
again posthumously reprinted in Portuguese under the title Observaçoens Medicas
Doutrinaes de Cem Casos Gravissimos (Doctrinal Medical Observations of One Hundred Most Grave Cases, Curvo Semedo died in 1719) saying that, by issuing this one book in
two languages he will be able to silence those who complained to him about the Portuguese used in his first book and those who complained about the Latin of his second, so that one may ‘choose the one best liked’.38 This comprises summaries of a hundred (and one) difficult and mysterious cases successfully cured by Curvo Semedo, an entire section of which is dedicated to healing the effects of sorcery.
Finally, his last relevant work, published between these two editions, is the 1720
Atalaya da Vida Contra as Hostilidades da Morte (Watchtower of Life Against the Hostilities of Death), a further compendium of remedies and cures and his last original
book. This one stands clearly at the end of Curvo Semdo’s life as he complains about his old age and presents the book as a correction of some of the errors of his youth
37 Curvo Semmedo, ‘Prologo ao Leytor,’ in Curvo Semmedo, Polyanthea Medicinal. 38
‘escolhesses a de que gostasses,’ in Curvo Semmedo, ‘Prologo ao Leytor,’ in Curvo Semmedo, Observaçoens Medicas Doutrinais.
11
and the ultimate treasure and distillation of all his medical knowledge.39 Interestingly, some cases addressed in this book are actually the same as those described in the
Observationes/Observaçoens (namely those of sorcery), but these are here presented
in much greater detail.
Apart from his books, three pamphlets can also be found under his name. These often times are quite repetitive and seem to be mostly glorified publicity brochures for his own brand of secret remedies, the Remedios Curvianos (Curvian Remedies). This leads us to one of the most relevant aspects of Curvo Semedo’s work and his own medical brand as a Segredista (Secretists, a manufacturer of secret remedies).
The Curvian Remedies in time will become a powerful and recognized institution of 18th-century Portuguese medicine, as through the action of his nephews, even after his death, these will continue to be known through books published by his descendents (such as the Compendio dos Segredos Medicinais, ou Remedios Curvianos/Compendium of Medicinal Secrets, or Curvian Remedies by Manuel José
Curvo Semedo, published in 1783). Even outside of Portugal some instances can be found of compendiums of Curvian Medicine, such as the Secretos Medicos y
Chirurgicos del Doctor Don Juan Curbo Semmedo (Medical and Surgical Secrets of the Doctor Sir Juan Curbo Semmedo), collected and translated into Castilian by Thomas
Cortijo, court doctor of Madrid in 1735 given that ‘with such favorable wind of esteem and applause have the Works of Doctor Curvo been received in the Provinces of our Spain, that they have been the lure of the most scholarly curiosity’.40
Looking into the Curvian Remedies, in the Polyanthea he usually refers to them as being twelve, but these seem to have been expanded to fourteen in the Atalaya.41 Of note among these are the extremely popular Cordeal Bezoartico, an artificial Bezoar stone against heart afflictions, poisons and venoms, and the Água Lusitana (Lusitanian
39
Curvo Semmedo, ‘Prologo ao Leytor,’ in Curvo Semmedo, Atalaya da Vida Contra as
Hostilidades da Morte.
40 ‘[c]on tan favorable viento de estimacio, y aplauso se han recebido las Obras del
Doctor Curbo en las Provincias de nuestra España, que han sido cebo de la curiosidade mas estudiosa,’ in Cortijo, Thomas, ‘Prologo a El Lector,’ in Cortijo, Thomas, Secretos
Medicos y Chirurgicos Del Doctor Don Juan Curbo Semmedo.
41
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Water), a remedy of quinine infused wine used against intermittent fevers (typically malaria) which he mentions was used in the Lisbon Royal Hospital.42
As defined by Paul Christopher Johnson’s 2002 Secrets, Gossip, and Gods, Secretism can be understood as the active circulation of a secret without its revelation; the promotion of the reputation of what lays inaccessible.43 This same kind of promotion of secrets is equally valid in the case of Portuguese medical Secretism, but tracking the origins of this tradition, it can perhaps be followed back to medical and natural secret books such as the Secrets of Galen or the Secrets of Women, attributed to Albertus Magnus.44 However, it has probably much clearer connection to Alchemical literature streamlined by Arabic Galenism and late chymistry in Portugal coupled together with the rise of merchant and capitalist culture, a late manifestation of scientific knowledge secrecy as described by William Eamon’s Science and the Secrets of Nature. From the alchemical vein, the keeping of a miraculous cure a secret was the propagation of the idea of harnessing the occult properties of nature as an individualistic pursue of understanding and knowledge, and will ultimately be connected to the implicit mystery and divinity underlying the natural world. From a contemporary academic perspective, Portuguese Segredismo can very well be placed under the umbrella of esotericism, particularly in Wouter Hanegraaff's conception of this field as the study of ‘rejected knowledge’,45 given that, as pointed out by José Pedro Sousa Dias, from an Enlightenment perspective the existence and production of secret remedies becomes a deep philosophical problem.
Segredismo in the Portuguese 18th century becomes a synonym for anti-Enlightenment. While this aims at the production and communication of clear and observable knowledge, Segredismo implies the opposite. While this problem was not too serious in Curvo Semedo’s own time, the issue will eventually reach its apex in the second half of the 18th century, a period when a concerted campaign against this form of medicine is headed by the next generation of Portuguese physicians and thinkers such as Luís António Verney, João Mendes Sachetti Barbosa (at one time a segredista himself) and
42 Curvo Semmedo, Polyanthea Medicinal, 321. 43 Johnson, Secrets, Gossip, and Gods, 3.
44
Fanger, ‘Secrecy II,’ 1055.
45
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António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches46 (a student of Hermann Boerhaave who would later head and inform some of the major reforms in Portuguese medicine in general47 and the University of Coimbra in particular).48 In sum, given the inability of fair and rational analysis of the composition of a particular remedy, this could not in any way be trusted, and its creator became thus no different from a charlatan, magic healer or miracle worker, promising cures without being able to scientifically prove their reality.49
As once again suggested by Dias, the use of medical Secretism can also be seen in 18th -century Portugal as a dying mechanism to shield a new remedy from potential criticism and condemnation from any of the conservative fields of the ‘ancients’ and the ‘moderns’. By keeping the ingredients and methods of fabrication undisclosed, a novel remedy or technique (of truly beneficial use) could be much more easily accepted by the general population, a factor which could, for a time, hold back the condemnation of the intellectual Enlightenment elites.50
In the particular case of Curvo Semedo, this potential novelty was his open support and use of chymistry. Looking into his writings, Curvo Semedo is extremely complex and at times even self contradicting in his support of either a chymical or classical outlook, it being ultimately doubtful whether a coherent medical worldview can be ascribed to him. Overall, it is clear that his whole conception of the medical universe, the characteristics of the human body and the functioning of remedies and cure in general is completely Galenic. Medicine is for him still about balancing humors (on which he concedes in part to Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation)51 and, in most cases, curing via the allopathic use of contraries (a hot disease being cured with a cold remedy), as opposed to the more Paracelsian homeopathic approach. However, he does still admit to such forms of therapy, as stated in one of his criticisms of Galenism:
I condemn the Galenic School when they say that the contraries cure their contraries; for I see that with aguardente, & spirit of Wine, which are extremely
46 Dias, A Água de Inglaterra, 65.
47 Walker, Doctors, Folk Medicine and the Inquisition, 126.
48 Dias, ‘Jacob de Castro Sarmento e a Conversão à Ciência Moderna,’ 70. 49 Dias, A Água de Inglaterra, 66.
50
Dias, A Água de Inglaterra, 86-87.
51
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hot things, Erysipelas are cured marvelously, which are most hot, & I also see that with wine and Quinine, which are hot, are quartan and tercian fevers perfectly cured (…)52
What he seems to imply is that the cure with contraries is not universal, and certain instances do exists where a disease of a certain quality needs to be cured with one of the same quality, a hallmark of Paracelsian medicine.53 However, since his view is at its base Galenic, the functioning of homeopathic cures becomes entirely mysterious to him, meaning that the fact that these cures do effectively work is frequently ascribed to ‘occult virtues’, as he mentions in his Observaçoens.54 Following what appears to be his own definition of occult virtues, these are mostly used as an umbrella term for all those things which are outside of reason and possible knowing. In Curvo Semedo’s case, as his view is purely Galenic, when placed before a non-deniable observation which falls outside of Galenism, the explanation of this event will simply be that this functions by an unknowable occult virtue, given that admitting a knowable and rational functioning behind it would effectively bring down the school of Galen (and throw an immense wrench into the Aristotelian-Catholic cosmos).
Finally, the last aspect of Curvo Semedo’s therapeutic world view which deserves considerable attention is his interest in folk medicine, at times bordering on magic (a word he never actually uses).
It is relevant to note that this issue was equally important for Paracelsus (Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493 – 1541) an extraordinarily relevant Swiss author on the topics of Medicine and chymistry and one of the great banner carriers for the ‘moderns’, anti-Galenism55 and an experimentalist approach to
52
‘Condeno a Eschola Galenica, quando diz que os contrários se curão com os seus contrários; porque vejo que com a agua ardente, & com spirito de Vinho, que saõ cousas quentíssimas, se curão maravilhosamente as Erisipelas, que são quentíssimas; & tambem vejo que com vinho, & Quinaquina, que saõ quentes, se curaõ perfeitamente as febres quartãs, & terçãs (…),’ in Curvo Semmedo, Polyanthea
Medicinal, 321.
53 Webster, Paracelsus, 147-148. 54
Curvo Semmedo, Observaçoens Medicas Doutrinais, 37-38.
15
healing.56 Beyond this, Paracelsus was also responsible for the creation of extremely long lasting and influential conceptions of the overlapping of magic, religion and medicine, creating an extraordinarily unified vision of the universe where empirical medicine from illiterate layers of society could be accepted and fitted into.57 However, given the reluctance Curvo Semedo has in mentioning this author in his wittings (which could simply be due to the negative attention this would give his books in the eyes of the Inquisitional censors) it might be impossible to determine if Curvo Semedo adopted this tendency from him or if such an interest was self developed. Once again underlying his perfect location in the debate of Transitional Medicine, Curvo Semedo very openly claims that ‘often times a simple old woman knows that which a great scholar does not’58 and that ‘in things which may seem ridiculous, or hoaxes of old
benzedeiras, one may sometimes find admirable remedies’.59 This makes his character even more complex due to the use of the term benzedeira (blesser), one of the specific terms used to identify Portuguese rural folk healers such as the ones being targeted by Coimbra trained physicians in the ranks of the Familiares. This could actually mean that, as a Familiar himself and a potential expert witness on benzedeira trials, he was willing to defend, at least in theory, the practices of illicit health practitioners, although no evidence of this has been found.
3.2.Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (1665 - 1731)
(…) with the change of times are also the rules of the faculties changed: & what was useful three hundred years ago, today may not be beneficial. With elegant reasons, in many parts of your SOCCORRO DELPHICO does Your
56
Roy, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, 202.
57 Pagel, Paracelsus, 249.
58 ‘muitas vezes sabe huma velha simplez o que nam sabe hum grande letrado,’ in
Curvo Semmedo, Polyanthea Medicinal, 825.
59 ‘em cousas que parecem ridiculas, ou embustes de velhas benzedeyras, se acham
algumas vezes remedies admiráveis,’ in Curvo Semmedo, Atalaya da Vida Contra as
16
Excellency prove this truth, & following the doctrine of the Moderns, disprove the discipline, & opinion of the Ancients.60
We greatly venerate the doctrine of Hippocrates, but we do not make ourselves slaves to it.61
Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (alternatively spelled Francisco da Fonseca Henriquez) was born on October 6th of 1665 in the northern region of Trás-os-Montes, more precisely in the town of Mirandela. His initial studies seem to have been performed in his home region.62 Completing these he enrolls in the University of Coimbra to study medicine, having finished his degree around the age of twenty three according to the information provided by the City Hall of Mirandela.63 Besides this, as mentioned by Diogo Barbosa Machado, he was equally skilled in Rhetoric, mythology and Latin, being a proficient poet.64 He starts his professional career in Chaves in the Portuguese North, eventually establishing himself in his home town in 1695. Becoming popular with influential sections of the Portuguese nobility, he eventually moves to Lisbon and becomes the personal physician of King John V and thus a professional rival of Curvo Semedo.65
Among his most relevant works we can mention the book Pleuricologia Sive Syntagma
Universale from 1701. From his own words, later published in his major work Medicina Lusitana, he describes this book as being ‘a daughter of the School of Galen’66 although
60
‘(…) com a mudança dos tempos se mudão também as regras das faculdades: & o que ha trezentos annos are util, hoje pòde naõ ser proveytosa. Com elegantes razões, em muytas partes do seu SOCCORRO DELPHICO prova V.M. esta verdade, & seguindo a doutrina dos Modernos, reprova a disciplina, & opiniaõ dos Antigos,’ in Coutinho, Paschoal Ribeyro, ‘Carta que Paschoal Ribeyro Coutinho escreveo ao Doutor Francisco da Fonseca Henriques Author destas Ilustrações,’ in Fonseca Henriques, Madeyra
Illustrado.
61
‘Nós veneramos muyto a doutrina de Hipocrates, mas naõ nos fazemos escravo della,’ in Fonseca Henriquez, Medicina Lusitana, 96.
62 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 2, 156. 63 n.a., ‘Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (Dr. Mirandela)’.
64 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 2, 156. 65 n.a., ‘Francisco da Fonseca Henriques (Dr. Mirandela)’.
66
‘filha da Escola de Galeno,’ in Fonseca Henriquez, ‘Prolemma,’ Fonseca Henriquez,
17
in it he openly quotes anti-Galenists such as Garcia da Orta, Paracelsus, Van Helmont and Robert Boyle or even religiously problematic authors such as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa.67
In 1710, he publishes what is likely his most important work, the Medicina Lusitana e
Soccorro Delphico (Lusitanian/Portuguese Medicine and Delphic/Apollonian/Oracular Relief), written in Portuguese but printed in Amsterdam. This book is once again a
perfect example of Transitional Medicine, as in its prologue he mentions that it is a book which follows no ‘School in particular or any other sect other than reason’.68 Following the line already established in the Pleuricologia, this books challenges to a great degree the established medical landscape, being on most accounts much more provocative than any of Curvo Semedo’s contributions. Of particular relevance in this book is the extremely detailed description of the medical functioning of concepts such as the evil eye, occult virtues and lunar influences, on which he is greatly dependent on Joan Baptista Van Helmont’s (1579 – 1644) theories of magnetism and sympathies and which will be discussed in detail below. Van Helmont should also highlighted given his position as one of the most relevant Paracelsians, both is his support of chymical medicine and his unified scientific and religious worldview.69 Beyond continuing the inquiries into magic and unseen forces proposed by Paracelsus, Van Helmont can also be credited with cementing the medical use of chymistry70 and his following by both Curvo Semedo and Fonseca Henriques clearly marks them as medial innovators in the midst of Portuguese medical traditionalism.
Returning to Latin, in 1711 Fonseca Henriques publishes the Apiarium
Medico-Chymicum Chyrurgicum, & Pharmaceuticum, once again printed in Amsterdam. This
book is structured by presenting an extensive list of medical ‘observations’ and Fonseca Henriques’ proscribed cures as drawn from the medical conceptualizations put down in the Medicina Lusitana, somewhat similar to Curvo Semedo’s
67 Fonseca Henriquez, ‘Authorum Apographe,’ in Fonseca Henriquez, Pleuricologia. 68‘Escola particular, nem mays seytas, que a da rezam,’ in Fonseca Henriquez,
‘Prolemma,’ Fonseca Henriquez, Medicina Lusitana (1710 ed).
69
Roy, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, 207.
18
Observaçoens. This book seems to once again lean towards Galen but it still retains the
theory of the circulation of blood.71
What is likely the most interesting item in his bibliography, is the Madeyra Ilustrado from 1715 (Madeira Illuminated). This is actually a re-print of the book Methodo de
Conhecer e Curar o Morbo Gallico (Method of Recognizing and Healing the French Disease) by Duarte Madeira Arrais (alternatively spelled Duarte Madeira Arraiz, Duarte
Madeyra Arraes, Eduardo Madeira Arrais or Edward Madeira Arrais), one of the most relevant medical doctors of the previous generation, personal doctor of King John IV.72 This books also contains Fonseca Henriques’ Dissertaçaõ Unica dos Humores Naturaes
do Corpo Humano (Single Dissertation of the Natural Humors of the Human Body), a
dissertation on the humors in which he proposes a radically altered humoral theory, drawing greatly on Harvey and bringing down large parts of the standard Galenic theory and which frames some of his understanding of the effects and generation of the evil eye (which is to be discussed in detail below).
Stepping out of purely medical books, one other work which is worth mentioning and which will reveal itself valuable for the understanding of some of his religious concepts (or lack of) and how these relate to healing is his Aquilegio Medicinal (Medicinal
[Water] Reservoir) from 1726, a guide to Portuguese springs, fountains, rivers, wells,
lakes and cisterns possessing medicinal properties. It is of course tempting to relate Fonsenca Henriques’ attention to water therapy with Paracelsus’ own interest in mineral water and the therapeutic values of mineral baths.73 However, analyzing this book reveals that in it he does not quote a single author, making its inspiration on Paracelsus (whom he quotes in the Medicina Lusitana and the Madeyra Ilustrado) impossible to confirm.
Despite being a rival of Curvo Semedo, and occasionally criticizing his medical point of view,74 the relationship between both of these physicians seems to have been one of high cordiality. Not only are both of them frequent authors of letters of congratulations in each other’s books and, at times, even approvers of the same books
71 Amorim da Costa, ‘Da Farmácia Galénica à Farmácia Química no Portugal
Setecentista,’ 26.
72 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana Historica, Critica, e Cronologica, Vol. 1, 822. 73
Pagel, Paracelsus, 201.
74
19
for the royal court, but both Fonseca Henriques and Curvo Semedo frequently quote each other, and Fonseca Henriques will even frequently prescribe the Curvian Remedies as cures (particularly the Cordeal Bezoartico).75
Similar to Curvo Semedo, Fonseca Henriques also possesses his own line of secret remedies, although these don’t seem to have ever been as popular as those of his rival. Looking into his remedies, in the end of the first edition of his Medicina Lusiana he lists twenty three of them, which, by its second edition, twenty years later, he claims to have made public.76 Among these, special mention should be made for his Pos Para o
Quebranto (Evil Eye Powders), a medical cure for the effects of the evil eye.
While being probably much more confrontational and provocative than Curvo Semedo, Fonseca Henriques’ own personal medical position, and the reason why he can so easily skip between medical schools, is probably due to the fact that, apart from errors of observation which time has corrected, he does not consider Galenism or the Aristoteliam conception of the universe to be intrinsically wrong (going to the point of quoting from the Conimbricencis in his books). In fact, one may almost say that he has a very unifying vision of the world, at times simply claiming that the differences observed between schools of thought are merely in nomenclature, and that deep down these do not contradict each other.
Still, keeping with the tendency of Curvo Semedo, and the overlap between Portuguese academic and folk medicine, Fonseca Henriques also seems to be somewhat positive regarding the collection of remedies from the ‘ignorant and rustic’. This he seems to associate with his subscription to rational experimentalism in that ‘we have so little presumptuousness that we despise nothing, for we know that in the virtue of a vile remedy, and ridiculous to the mind, is often times the health of the patient, who with more precious remedies could not recover’.77 Yet, even with this further articulation he still seems to follow a strict doctrine of cure through opposites,
75 Fonseca Henriquez, Medicina Lusitana (1710 ed), 161.
76 Fonseca Henriques, ‘Prolemma,’ in Fonseca Henriques, Medicina Lusitana (1731 ed). 77 ‘nós temos taõ puco presunção, que nada desprezamos, porque sabemos, que na
virtude de hum remedio vil, e ao parecer ridiculo, está muytas vezes a saude do doente, que com remedies mays preciosos se naõ pode recobrar,’ in Fonseca Henriquez, Medicina Lusitana (1710 ed), 122.
20
not even, apparently, admitting to the use of homeopathy resulting from unknowable occult qualities, particularly in the issue of poisons.78
Further adding layers of interest and complexity to his medical worldview is his support for the theory of correspondences between the human body, the planets, the stars, the elements and the humors,79 with particular relevance given to the Moon. This is an aspect which is much less relevant in Curvo Semedo, and analyzing Fonseca Henriques’ ‘pharmacological theory’ he will with much greater frequency refer to the appropriate times for a plant to be picked or the appropriate time to treat a disease. While he originally bases his acceptance of this paradigm from classical authors, he also uses it as his gateway into the concepts of the Microcosm and Macrocosm, where he easily overlaps the ‘moderns’ and the ‘ancients’.
While both Curvo Semedo and Fonseca Henriques are likely the two most visible proponents of medical modernization in Portugal in the late 17th and early 18th century, it can be observed that their methodologies and medical conceptions are at times at odds. Fonseca Henriques is always much more open and uncompromising in his admiration and divulgence of the ‘moderns’ such as Harvey, Van Helmont and particularly Paracelsus. While not shunning Galenism, his repeated use of terms such as ‘slavery’ when addressing classical medicine may also reveal an open tension and challenge to the medical, the academic and (indirectly) the religious establishment. The fact that he stood at the top of the Portuguese medical hierarchy as personal physician of King John V and had the capacity to have his books printed in Amsterdam and safely smuggled back into Portugal seems to have given him enough freedom for the several intellectual liberties he openly took in his books.
3.3. Bernardo Pereira (1681 – after 1759)
For being Bernardo Pereyra a single man, in such a way do we see him multiplied in this Tome as a wise man that in one part we admire him as a Theologian, in another we recognize him a Physician; here we venerate him as a Jurisconsult, there we respect him as a Moralist, in one chapter, Humanist,
78
Fonseca Henriquez, Medicina Lusitana (1710 ed), 392.
79
21
in another Politician; but he is in everything a single one, that in all of this he is unique and a consummate and universal Doctor, who among the Heroes, and the greater Heroes one owes him the greatest esteem.80
Bernardo Pereira (alternatively spelled Bernardo Pereyra) was born on the 11th of December of 1681 in Miranda (unspecified but likely Miranda do Douro in the Trás-os-Montes), being the son of the doctor Manuel Lopes Pereira. He begins his studies in his home city and, following his father’s footsteps, goes to Coimbra to enroll in the faculty of medicine, graduating in 1709. In an unusual academic move, a few years after completing his medical degree, he once again enrolls in Coimbra to study law, graduating again in 1739 and establishing his medical practice in Sardoal in the central region of Portugal.81 Analyzing his writings (even if few), his dual graduation is very clearly perceived, as he easily presents himself as a multidisciplinary erudite, discoursing on several topics and analyzing any single one from a multiplicity of different angles frequently using complex and at times cryptic phrasal structures. The first of his works relevant for the current study is a booklet from 1719, entitled
Discurso Apologetico Que Em Defensa dos Prodigios da Natureza Vistos Pela Experiencia & Qualificados Por Força de Hum Sucesso Para o Conhecimento de Muytos Effeytos, & Occultas Qualidades (Apologetic Discourse in Defense of the Prodigies of Nature Seen By Experience & Qualified By the Evidence of a Success For the Knowledge of Many Effects & Occult Qualities). This small work takes the lead from a supposed
marvelous birth of a monster in the town of Castelo Branco to present this as an example of wonder and marvel still present in the world and which lies outside of any possible investigation by the rational mind.
80
‘Pois sendo Bernado Pereyra hum só em quanto homem, de tal sorte o vemos multiplicado neste Tomo em quanto sabio que em huã parte o admiramos Theologo, em outra o reconhecemos Medico; aqui o veneramos Jurisconsulto, alli o respeitamos Moralista, em hum capitulo, Humanista, em outro Politico; màs em tudo taõ hum, que em todos hè unico, taõ consumado e universal Doutor, que entre os Heroes, e maiores Hereos se lhe deve a primeira estimação,’ in Manitta, Francisco Xavier, ‘Carta do D. Francisco Xavier Manitta, Medico do primeiro Partido do Real Convento da Ordem de Christo da Villa de Thomar,’ in Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica.
81
22
By the example of this remarkable marvel, Pereira goes on to list equally marvelous things mentioned by the ‘ancients’ and which have been discredited by the ‘moderns’, taking this occurrence to mean that other such marvels should not be disregarded. Looking at it as a whole, this pamphlet seems to effectively present an extremely interesting reconversion narrative from the ‘modern’ mentality and the general Enlightenment back into religious orthodoxy and the classics. A somewhat personal confirmation of newly found faith to once again re-enchant the universe.82
Following this ideological line, his next book is the 1734 Anacephaleosis
Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral e Politica (Medico-Theological, Magical, Legal, Moral and Political Summary). This is a book specifically written to tackle issues of
sorcery, the evil eye and demonic illnesses from a medical perspective and it is a remarkably unorthodox work by its unusual structure, breadth of angles and discussions and non linear form. Being a truly baroque piece of writing, the overall discussion of this book (structured by dissertations and observations) is frequently broken to include letters and impressions from priests, bishops and even Pereira’s father (who seems to have shared his interest in the medical conceptualization and rationalization of supernatural diseases) offering theological and legal disputations against the practice of magic and its cure. Besides these, Pereira himself frequently moves on to what he refers to as Parensis, Reflexões and Digressões (Parentheses, Reflections and Digressions) on medico-political, theological-moral, medico-practical-political-moral, medico-theological-ethico-political, medico-botanical, or any other combination of subjects into the topic he might be addressing. This strange and fascinating complexity he justifies by the fact that for him medicine is the most complex of all subjects, and one must have a perfect understanding of all other sciences (including theology) in order to be a proficient doctor.83
Although by far not as relevant as Curvo Semedo and Fonseca Henriques, Pereira was nonetheless a member of the Portuguese medical and Enlightenment circles (at least at one time). Particular evidence of this is a letter by Curvo Semedo included in the
Anacephaleosis which suggests that Pereira had sent him a copy of his book in order to
82 Pereyra, Discurso Apologetico, 21. 83
Pereyra, ‘Prologo A Quem Ler este Livro,’ in Pereyra, Anacephaleosis
23
ask him to be its reviewer, which was replied to with praise.84 Other than that, evidences of the high esteem Pereira had for Curvo Semdo can also be found by several references to him and his method of healing throughout the Anacephaleosis. On the case of the relationship between Pereira and Fonseca Henriques, this seems to rather be one of open animosity.
This problematic relationship seems to emerge from Fonseca Henriques’ Medicina
Lusitana when, while discussing the uses of steel for liver blockages, he somewhat
gratuitously makes a reference to Manoel Lopes Pereira (Bernardo Pereira’s father) and his 1700 book Xeniolum Medico Theorico Practicum, & Humana Vitæ Utilissimum
ex Ditissimo Auctorum Ærario, ac Febrium Universali Tractatione Magna Solicitudine de Proptum; Opus Tyronibus Necessarium, & Doctis Non Injundum.85 This criticism by Fonseca Henriques can of course be understood by the difference in conceptions of healing and disease obviously existent between him and Lopes Pereira, but the fact that he addresses him directly by name in his book is suggestive of a more personal angle which may be all but invisible to us. Being an obvious defender of his father, Bernardo Pereira (whose medical outlook he continuously supports and propagates in the Anacephaleosis) seems to take every opportunity to get back at Fonseca Henriques throughout his writings.86
But, even with his personal distaste for Fonseca Henriques, Pereira can still quote and reference him as a source of authority on the ‘moderns’ versus ‘ancients’ debate, although not as a way to validate the ‘moderns’, but rather to try to salvage the ‘ancients’. Ultimately his position in that debate seems to be that of fighting a losing battle; he is aware and largely accepts the ‘moderns’ and their new medicines, but among these he seems to be trying to salvage what he can of the classical religious conceptualization of the body, the world and the invisible agencies within these.87
84 Curvo Semmedo, Carta do D. Joam Curvo Semmedo Cavaleyro Professo da Ordem de
Christo, Familiar do S. Officio, e Medico da Caza Real,’ in Pereyra, Anacephaleosis
Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica.
85 Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana, Vol 3, 298. 86
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 46.
87
24
In this way, while occasionally exhibiting knowledge of chymical nomenclature88 and being a very open admirer of Curvo Semedo and his particular brand of chymistry, Pereira will fall in line with the more conservative Galenists in condemning Paracelsus as a heresiarc, on par with Luther, Calvin and Arius89 and, together with Van Helmont, an outright imposter.90 Equally, he subscribes to Galenic cure by contraries91 and seems to have a preference for the use of simple drugs instead of the compound ones typical of Arabic Galenism, at one point dismissing Avicenna as an atheist.92 His Galenic preference also frames for his observance of folk medicine, as he sees this as a repository of remedies from the ‘ancients’ (but only if the ambiguous line between folk medicine and magic is well defined).
On a contemporary academic level, particularly the analysis made of him by Walker93 and Drumond Braga,94 it is this particular point in Pereira and his extensive dealings with sorcery in general, which seems to often characterize him as a dispeller of folk magic and medical errors arising from supernatural beliefs. This interpretation may not be entirely correct, as his book clearly subscribes and reinforces the certainty of sorcery and in the immaterial malefic agency of demons and the Devil, meaning that it is not so much a dispeller of ‘superstitions’ but rather a text urging the persecution and prohibition of such practices precisely because of their unquestionable reality.
Following on this same line, like Fonseca Henriques, Pereira also pays a considerable amount of attention to heavenly bodies and the Moon for the application of remedies (particularly purges)95 and in the collection of materia medica, being a believer in the occult virtues of the stars over the entire sublunar world96 but still considering astrology to be unlawful.97 Collecting Pereira’s full view of medicine, cure and healing,
88
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 333.
89
Pereyra, ‘Prologo A Quem Ler este Livro,’ in Pereyra, Anacephaleosis
Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica.
90
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 316.
91
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 88.
92
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 1.
93 Walker, Doctors, Folk Medicine and the Inquisition, 115-116.
94 Drumond Braga, ‘Medicina Popular versus Medicina Universitaria en el Portugal de
Juan V (1705-1750),’ 216.
95 Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 190. 96
Pereyra, Anacephaleosis Medico-Theologica, Magica, Juridica, Moral, e Politica, 351.
97
25
one can perhaps call his brand of medicine Pia Medicina, a medical practice and conception which takes its whole base and authority from the Divine Scripture.98
Taking precisely the example of the Anacephaleosis, and its specific treatment of supernatural and malefic illness, not only is Pereira’s medical conception taken from the Bible and its Catholic commentators, but equally the very concept of cure is intrinsically dependent on close observance of orthodox Catholic practice and life style. While such a perspective is not without precedent, be it from Catholic or Protestant environments, a good example of which is ironically Paracelsus, the main difference with Pereira is his place as an academically trained physician. His medical religiousness is not solely based on faith or the passive following of Catholic dogma, but on the reconceptualization of this into a medical worldview where, in light of modern advancement, faith cannot sustain itself solely on face value. Hence, when looking at the Anacephaleosis, this book is not at all an eccentric literary expression of a medical religious zealot obsessed with sorcery and the Devil, but rather the natural output of a physician who is attempting to construct a coherent worldview between the certainty of religion and the undeniable observations of rational science.
4. Occult Virtues, Evil Eye and Sorcery in 18th-Century Portuguese Medicine
4.1. Determining the Field of Study
Approaching now the main topic of this thesis, a number of issues need to be firstly addressed before any kind of analysis of sorcery, occult virtues or magic in 18th-century Portuguese medicine can be done. First of all, an initial survey of the studied literature reveals that the use of the word ‘magic’ is extraordinarily rare in the three studied authors, being only used by Bernardo Pereira and without any substantial relevance. Nonetheless, many other concepts are repeatedly used by these which could somehow be placed under this one term. This, as pointed out by Bernd-Christian Otto and Michael Stausberg, is part of the problem of the definition of ‘magic’: its almost
98
Pereyra, ‘Prologo A Quem Ler este Livro,’ in Pereyra, Anacephaleosis
26
arbitrary use as an umbrella term to cover a number of other concepts such as those of ‘amulets’, ‘astrology’, ‘fumigations’ or ‘necromancy’.99
Building upon Marco Pasi’s ‘Theses de Magia’,100 a lot of these concepts can also be observed to be period and geographically dependent, meaning that, in order to be addressed academically, they first need to be delimited to our temporal and geographical location. Given the difficulties in accurately identifying, pinpointing and isolating ‘magic’ as an umbrella for the terms concretely used by the studied authors, it is likely that the most appropriate methodology to approach them will be to simply disregard the concept of ‘magic’ and any definitions proposed by fellow academics altogether. Such should not be seen as an immoderate move, but rather the recognition that the particular circumstances under study (18th-century Portuguese medicine) have never been treated or examined for the search and definition of the concepts we wish to analyze. Consequently, following a borrowed definition will in all likeliness impose a forcibly alien and deformative view on our topic of study. In short: the term ‘magic’ is abandoned because it’s not used in our sources and to use it would be to project upon them.
Stepping outside of ‘magic’, instead of starting off from a predetermined definition and working our way thought the current sources in search of instances in which it might fit, we will instead take a bottom-up approach. To delimitate what we are to address in the current chapter we will simply define this as: ‘immaterial powers and agencies which are addressed in a medical context by the studied authors’. These can then range from 1) immaterial agencies causing physical effects (eg.: a demon causing a disease or a saint causing a cure); 2) material agencies causing immaterial effects (eg.: fumigation or consumption of a particular herb to drive away a demon); 3) physical agencies causing a physical effect through an immaterial means of communication (ex.: an object whose presence or proximity will heal a body); and 4) immaterial agencies causing an immaterial effects (ex.: driving away a disease causing demon with prayer). These are the four extremes of the circle used to delimitate our area of interest, but in all likelihood we will most often be dealing with instances which can be seen as possibly belonging to several of these four categories simultaneously.
99
Otto and Stausberg, ‘General Introduction,’ 2.
100
27
Comparing this with other historical approaches to magic, one immediate result is that it completely ignores any possible distinction between ‘magic’, ‘religion’ and science’, hallmarks of what is referred to as the Intellectualist School, mostly exemplified by Edward Burnett Tylor and James Frazer. Furthermore, ignoring the relation between social organization, magic and religion, this approach equally stands outside of the Functionalist School of Marcel Mauss and Emile Durkhiem, 101 as it is not interested in social organization, but merely in the immateriality of a perceived agency.
How this approach relates to the theories derived by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl is somewhat more complex, since it cannot easily distinguish between ‘instrumental causality’ and ‘participation’.102 Given the ultimate rational nature of the physicians under study, even though they may address the topic of immateriality and intangible agencies, these are presented largely as linear mechanisms of cause-and-effect (which once again adds difficulties to the possibility of fitting them to the Intellectualist School idea of ‘primitive’ mentality).103 However, looking at the underlying way in which these mechanisms work, these are (from our contemporary perspective) ‘participatory’, meaning that their reality is rooted in ‘religious’ concepts. Pointing out one of the problems with Lévy-Bruhl, this shouldn’t actually be particularly troubling for the understanding or definition of what we are to study, since religious reality in this context is as equally rational and observable to the studied authors as any other scientific ‘instrumental causality’ effect (ex.: humor theory), which can in any way be grounded in ‘participation’ mentality in the same sense that any and all ‘science’ is also grounded in it.
Still comparing it with other attempts at definition, our approach will likely be closer to Richard Kierckhefer’s idea of ‘magic as crossroad’ discussed in his book Magic in the
Middle Ages. As in our case, his approach equally allows for the overlapping of folk and
intellectual concepts, as also religious and scientific,104 being the ultimate difference that this scholar binds these specifically to the concept of ‘magic’, which, as stated, has been abandoned in our case given that it is not explicitly used by the studied authors
101 Hanegraaff, ‘Magic,’ 394. 102 Hanegraaff, ‘Magic,’ 395. 103 Pasi, ‘Magic,’ 1135. 104
