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The Early Practice of Physical Anthropology by the Renaissance Portuguese Physician Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568)

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The Early Practice of Physical Anthropology by the Renaissance Portuguese Physician Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568) The early practice of Physical Anthropology by the Renaissance Portuguese physician Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568) Vítor Matos ([email protected]) and Carina Marques ([email protected]) | Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal Introduction Amatus Lusitanus: short biography(based on reference 20) The foundation of Physical Anthropology is often attributed to Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), a German professor of medicine, naturalist and collector of human skulls(1-3). On the early history of this field of knowledge, human variation in terms of race and racial classifications 1511 – Born in Castelo Branco [Portugal] (1,4-6) were the dominant epistemological perspectives , yet interesting observations regarding Descendant of a Jewish family human biodiversity, and often neglected by historians of anthropology, were already documented since Classical Antiquity and subsequent periods(7-8). 1525 – Moved to Salamanca [Spain] One relevant case comes from the Renaissance, with the pioneer observations on the anatomical Studied Arts and Medicine at the University of Salamanca. variability of human skulls made by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)(9), a remarkable figure of modern Anatomy(10,12), on his groundbreaking book De humani corporis fabrica (1543) (Figure 1). 1529 – Returns to Portugal Vesalius “placed physical anthropology on a precise basis [...with a] tentative beginning in http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies Studied Botany and simultaneously treated patients in several comparative anatomy”(7: 40). Figure 1. Frontispiece of the De humani corporis fabrica (1543). Portuguese places: Almeida, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Évora The birth of modern Anatomy, with the shifting of the old Galenic and Hippocratic paradigms and [hometown of his mother], Guarda, Santarém, among others. (11-12) the rupture with the strictures on human dissections , endorsed the scientific study of tissues and organs, including bones and teeth (Figures 1 and 2). 1534 – Moved to Antwerp [Flanders, Belgium] However, little is known to what extent the early anatomists made use of human bones to Published his first book “Index Dioscorides” in 1536. investigate and try to find answers to specific anthropological problems. To explore their works may provide insights on the deepest roots of the history of Physical Anthropology. 1540 – Moved to Ferrara [Italy] Aims Was professor of Anatomy at the University of Ferrara, one of the most prestigious medical schools during Renaissance. This This work aims to describe what can be considered one of the earliest evidences of the practice of chair was later occupied by Gabriele Falloppio (1523-1562). Physical Anthropology performed by the Portuguese physician Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568) and to show how the Renaissance medical texts represent an interesting and underexplored source for Amatus practiced intensively the dissection of human cadavers the history of this field. and travelled to other Italian cities, including Florence, Pisa, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/historicalanatomies/Images/1200_pixels/ketham_p64.jpg Figure 2. Human dissection depicted on Fasiculo Rome and Venice - where he treated Cosimo I de Medici, Amatus Lusitanus de medicina, Johannes de Ketham (1496). Grand Duke of Tuscany. Amatus Lusitanus (1511-1568), pseudonymous of João Rodrigues, can be considered as the archetype of the European Renaissance physician(11) and is recognized as an influential figure of this period(13). He studied Medicine in the prestigious University of Salamanca, 1547 – Moved to Ancona [Italy] lived in several countries, was professor of Anatomy at the University of Ferrara and treated some prominent persons of the Renaissance Finished the 1st (1549), 2nd (1551), 3rd (1552) and 4th (1553) (see the box for a short biography). centuriae. Treated the pope Julius III who suffered from Between 1551 and 1561, this physician published 7 volumes entitled Curationum medicinalium centuriae, each containing 100 cures podagra, in Rome, in 1550. reporting medical cases treated by him in several European countries (Figures 3 and 4). The last cure, from the 4th centuriae (dated from 1553)14 is entitled: “Where it is taught how a left-handed boy, i.e. with more agility on the left hand, could not be brought to the use of the right hand, and at the same time on the weight of human bones and skin.” On this centuriae, Amatus reports his attempt to understand handedness by measuring the weight differences between left and right humeri, as follows: “When in the past years we dissected many and various bodies, aiming the exact knowledge of anatomy, we were not satisfied only by sectioning bodies and examining particles, […] we found many novelties never written before […], and additionally we weighed bones, comparing those from the right side with the left ones, and this weighing allowed us to find an explanation to our intent [understanding handedness]. When weighing the left and right arm bones (from the elbow to the shoulder) using a two-arm scale, with the right th th in one side of the scale and the left in the other side, I found that the right Figure 3. Frontispiece of the 4 centuriae (left) and the 100 cure (right) of Amatus Figure 4. Renaissance map of Europe signaling the places where Amatus Lusitanus lived and places visited. Lusitanus. Edition from 1653 available at: http://purl.pt/23097. Adapted from http://www.uc.pt/bguc/Documentos2011/AmatoBio. one, or right arm bone, presented a much higher weigh than the left bone.” 1555/6 – Moved to Pesaro [Italy] Discussion and final remarks 1556 – Moved to Ragusa [Drubovnik, Croatia] The 100th cure of the 4th centuriae of Amatus reveals that interesting issues that nowadays are within the scope of Physical Anthropology were already debated on the 16th century through the analysis of human bones. Handedness continued to be a concern of this field of Finished the 5th centuriae. inquiry, on the archaeological but also on forensic settings(15). 1559 – Moved to Thessaloniki [Greece] Research regarding the skeletal morphology and handedness has been growing on recent decades, focusing on different approaches, such as, differences in size and robusticity of the limbs, analysis of asymmetry on bone mineral density and on articular diseases (e.g. Finished the 6th and 7th centuriae (1561). osteoarthritis), among other approaches(15). Died of “plague” in 1568. On the other hand the study of the weight of bones also did not fall into oblivion, yet evolving to other dimensions either in archaeological and in forensic settings, for example, estimating the living weight based on References the skeleton weight, assessing the relationship between body mass and cremation weight, interpretating burial [1] Mielke J.H. et al. (2006) Human biological variation. Oxford University Press, Oxford; [2] Brothwell D.R. (2008) Historic dimensions to the biological study of human populations. In: Schutkowski H. (ed.), Between biology and culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 12-38; [3] Little M.A., Sussman R.W. (2010) practices, estimating the minimum number of individuals from commingled human skeletal remains and issues History of Physical Anthropology. In: Larsen C.S. (ed.), A companion to Biological Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 13-38; [4] Spencer F. (ed.) (1997a) History of physical anthropology: an encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, Volume 1: A-L. New York; [5] Spencer F. (ed.) (1997b) History of physical anthropology: an related to human identification(16-19). encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, Volume 2: M-Z. New York; [6] Brace C.L. (2005) "Race" is a four-letter word: the genesis of the concept. Oxford University Press, Oxford.; [7] Slotkin J.S. (1965) Readings in early anthropology. Methuen, London; [8] Tanner J.M. (1981) A history of the study of human growth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; [9] Hast M.H., Garrison D.H. (2000) Vesalius on the variability of the human skull: Book I Chapter V of De humani corporis fabrica. In sum, this work provides new clues regarding the practice of Physical Anthropology in the 16th century Clinical Anatomy, 13: 311-20; [10] Porter R. (1997) The greatest benefit to the Mankind: a medical history of humanity. W. W. Norton & Company, London; [11] Rodrigues I.T. (2005) Amato Lusitano e as perturbações sexuais. Algumas contribuições para uma nova perspectiva de análise das Centúrias de Curas Medicinais. Tese performed by the Portuguese physician Amatus Lusitanus and shows the importance of Renaissance medical de Doutoramento. Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro; [12] Cook H.J. (2008) Medicine. In: Park K., Daston L. (eds) The Cambridge history of Science: early modern science (vol. 3). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 407-434; [13] Pita J.R., Pereira A.L. (2003) Escritos maiores e menores sobre Amato Lusitano. writings for the history of this discipline. Medicina na Beira Interior da Pré-História ao século XXI: Cadernos de Cultura, 17: 5-16; [14] Lusitano, A. (2010) Centúrias de curas medicinais. Lisboa: Centro Editor Livreiro da Ordem dos Médicos; [15] Ubelaker D.H., Zarenko K.M. (2012) Can handedness be determined from skeletal remains? A chronological review of the Acknowledgments literature. J For Sci, 57: 1421–26; [16] Baker P.T., Newman R.W. (1957) The use of bone weight for human identification. Am J Phys Anthropol, 15: 601-18. [17] Silva A.M., Crubézy E., Cunha E. (2009) Bone weight: new reference values based on a modern Portuguese identified skeletal collection. Int J Osteoarchaeol, 19: 628–41.; The authors would like to thank FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (grants number: SFRH/BPD/70466/2010 [VM] and SFRH/BD/30038/2006 [18] May S. E. (2011) The effects of body mass on cremation weight. J For Sci, 56: 3–9. [19] Ubelaker D.H. (2009) The forensic evaluation of burned skeletal remains: [CM]) and CIAS - Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde, Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Universidade de Coimbra. a synthesis. For Sci Int, 183: 1-5.
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