Everything about Crist V O Da Costa totally explained
Cristóvão da Costa, also known by the Spanish form,
Cristobal Acosta (
1515–
1594) was a
Portuguese doctor and
natural historian. He is considered a pioneer in the study of
plants from the
Orient, especially their use in
pharmacology. Together with the
apothecary Tomé Pires and the
physician Garcia de Orta he's one of the major names of Indo-Portuguese medicine.
He is believed to have been born somewhere in
Africa or in the
Cape Verde Islands, since in his work he claims to be African (
Christoval Accosta Africano), but the exact place and date of his birth remain unknown.
Cristóvão da Costa first travelled to the
East Indies in
1550 as a soldier. He took part in some campaigns against the native populace, and at one point was taken prisoner and held captive in
Bengal. After returning to Portugal, he joined his former captain,
Luís de Ataíde, who had been appointed
viceroy of
India. He returned to
Goa in
1568, the year Garcia de Orta died. He served as personal physician to the viceroy, and in 1569 was appointed physician to the royal hospital in
Cochin, where he'd the opportunity of treating the king of Cochin. By
1571, he was noted as collecting botanical specimens from various parts of India. He returned to Portugal in 1572 after Ataíde's term ended. From 1576 to 1587 he served as surgeon and then physician in
Burgos (
Spain).
At Burgos in
1578 he published (in Spanish) his work
Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias orientales ("Treatise of the drugs and medicines of the
East Indies"). In this he says he was brought to India by his desire to find "in several regions and provinces learned and curious men from whom I could daily learn something new; and to see the diversity of plants God has created for human health". Parts of this work were translated into Latin by
Charles de l'Ecluse (Carolus Clusius), eventually to be included in his illustrated compendium
Exoticorum libri decem (1605).
Da Costa's book isn't wholly original, drawing a great deal (with minimal acknowledgement) from the previously-published
Colóquios dos Simples e Drogas da India of
Garcia de Orta. It soon became better known than Garcia's work.
Another work of note was
Tractado de la yerbas, plantas, frutas y animales, but this treatise is now believed lost.
When his wife died, da Costa retired and went to live in a hermitage. He died in
1594 in
Huelva,
Spain.
The
Acosta crater on the
Moon is named in his honor.
Further Information
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