The Arvore da Vida by Father Affonso da Costa: pharmacy, medicine and science in the jesuit activities and mission in Goa (Eighteenth century)

• Grant number: 21/00530-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2021
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Ana Carolina de Carvalho Viotti
• Grantee: Vitória Marchetto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, the high levels of diseases and elevated mortality rates that desolated the city of Goa demanded people who dominated the healing arts to act in the treatment of sick people. At that moment, the already broken capital of the Estado da Índia suffered from a lack of such professionals, the restrictions imposed on native doctors and the low number of doctors who graduated in European universities contributed to the scenario. The conjuncture allowed a raise in the participation of the Society of Jesus priests at the hospitals and apothecary shops, places already occupied by this man, which gave a new meaning to the Jesuit missions, not only dedicating themselves to the religious conversion, but also to the production of drugs and the treatment of the diseases. Using the book Árvore da Vida [...], written and finished probably in 1720 by the Jesuit Affonso da Costa, in Goa, we will try to analyze and reflect on the insertion of the Jesuits on the body treatment sphere, using the Árvore da Vida [...] as a possible key to understanding the significant role played by those faithful men in the medical and pharmaceutical field in the East.(AU)