Amato Lusitano
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Joćo Rodrigues de Castelo Branco better known as Amato Lusitano was a notable portuguese jewish physician of the 16th Century.
His Life
Amato Lusitano was born in Castelo Branco, Portugal in 1511, from jewish parents. He studied Medicine at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Unable to return to Portugal as he wished, due to the persecutions of the Inquisition, he traveled throughout Europe before settling in Ferrara, Italy, in which University he taught Anatomy as an assistent of the physician Canano. He was for a time the physician to the Pope Julius III, in Rome. With the nomination of Pope Paul IV, persecutions of the jews in Italy began. He fled first to Ragusa, then to Thessaloniki, Greece, which then had a great jewish community and was part of the Ottoman Empire. He died in 1568.
His Work
As assistant to Canano he discovered the circulation of the blood, and through dissections of the Azigos vein, he was the first to observe and speculate about the venous valves found there.
He wrote several books, including Index Dioscoridis 1536, In Dioscorides de Medica materia Librum quinque enarrationis 1556 e Curationium Centuriae Septem 1556.pt:Amato Lusitano
