Medicine and erudite knowledge in Portugal in the Renaissance

Abstract

The present article is concerned with drawing a general picture of the influentes on medicai scholarship in early modern Portugal. We focus on the writings and activities of doctors who graduated and taught in universities, and were physicians to a powerful clientele. Portuguese scholarship is considered here as part of a broader intellectual milieu including ali European countries which received and produced printed and manuscript books on the main subjects of the day (philosophy, theology, law, medicine and literature). The article attempts to provide answers to questions such as: in which ways have medical writers drawn upon the influentes studied and how are they combined in their works? In which social and institutional context did this occur? How did developments in this context affect medicine and medicai education?