ACOSTA, Cristóvão da (Cristóbal d’Acosta, Christophorus Acosta Africanus). 1515/1525/1538? — Burgos 1592 or Huelva 1594?. Portuguese Physician, stayed in India in 1568-76. Born in Africa (but in Portuguese territory, in Tanger, Ceuta or Cape Verde). Probably studied at Salamanca and came 1550 to India as soldier. Participated in some campaigns, some time captive in Bengal. After a while in Portugal returned as physician in 1568. The years in India he spent mainly in Kerala (Cochin) but also visited South-East Asia. In India he met —> Garcia da Orta, whose pharmacological dialogues he then arranged into a systematic form, in which they soon became famous. After returning from India in 1572 he worked as surgeon and physician in Burgos in Spain 1576-87, after his wife’s death retired to a hermitage.
Publications: Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales. With 23 woodcuts. Burgos 1578, new editions 1582 & 1592, Latin translation Aromatium et medicamentorum in orientali India nascentium liber, by Charles de l’Écluse (Clusius), 1582, Italian translation 1585, later also in English.
– Tratado em loor de las mujeres, y de la castidad, honestidad, constancia, silencio e justicia. Veneza 1592 (apparently no copy preserved).
Sources: Grande Encyclop. Portuguesa e Brasileira; Wikipedia (as Cristóbal Acosta, with picture).
Last Updated on 12 hours by Admin
