Amato Lusitano
| Amato Lusitano | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1511 Castelo Branco, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | 1568 (aged 56–57) Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Fields | physician |
| Known for | Studied the circulation of the blood |
João Rodrigues de Castelo Branco, better known as Amato Lusitano and Amatus Lusitanus (1511–1568), was a notable Portuguese Jewish physician of the 16th century. Like Herophilus, Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo and William Harvey, he is credited as making a discovery in the circulation of the blood. He is said to have discovered the function of the valves in the circulation of the blood.
Lusitano was born in 1511 in Castelo Branco, Portugal. He was a descendant of a Marrano family called Chabib (= Amatus, "beloved" in Latin), and was brought up in the Jewish faith. After having graduated with honors as M.D. from the University of Salamanca, he was unable to return Portugal for fear of the Inquisition. He went to Antwerp for a time and then traveled through the Netherlands and France, finally settling in Italy. His reputation as one of the most skilful physicians of his time preceded him there, and during his short sojourn at Venice, where he came in contact with the physician and philosopher Jacob Mantino, he attended the niece of Pope Julius III and other distinguished personages.
In 1546 Amato was in Ferrara, at whose University he taught anatomy as an assistant to the physician Giambattista Canano and delivered lectures on medicinal plants. At one of his lectures he dissected twelve cadavers — a great innovation at that time — in the presence of many scholars, among whom was the anatomist Jean Baptiste Cananus, who through his experience on this occasion was wrongly credited with the discovery of the function of the valves in the circulation of the blood. During his sojourn in Ferrara, which lasted for six years, Amatus Lusitanus received an invitation from the King of Poland to move to that country, which he declined, preferring to settle in Ancona, where religious tolerance existed.
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