Medicina Oriental: study about a medical and pharmaceutical book written in Goa (Eighteenth-Century)

• Grant number: 22/13599-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: April 10, 2023
• End date: October 09, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Ana Carolina de Carvalho Viotti
• Grantee: Vitória Marchetto
• Supervisor: Rui Manuel Taveira de Sousa Loureiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/02706-7 - Galenism and Ayurveda: shaping and registration of medical and pharmaceutical practices in Goa (Eighteenth Century), BP.MS

Abstract

During the Eighteenth-century, the book Medicina Oriental was written in Goa by, as one believes, the Goan Luís Caetano de Meneses. This medical and pharmaceutical manuscript aimed to be diffused among people living in Goa, disseminating useful knowledge about the treatment of the bodies to those who hadn't access to foreign drugs and to the professional healers. Meneses prioritizes elements easily found in India to the production of the medicines. The main goal of this research is to access and transcribe Medicina Oriental, besides analyzes information provided by the document that relates to the Indian medical systems and its connections with ayurveda, trying to understand how the Indian doctors used the native medical traditions in the healing process. From Medicina Oriental, alongside with the reading of the supporting bibliography, we aim to understand Eighteenth-century Goa medical and pharmaceutical practices specially from the Indians healers' perspective. (AU)