Project creator(s)

Atlantic Materia Medica (Digital Catalogue)

Western medicine was born in the Mediterranean world, as the result of cross-fertilization between the rich healing traditions of peoples living in southern Europe, northern Africa and the Near East. It came of age, however, in the Atlantic world. In this new phase of its complex evolution, Western medicine grew out of creative interactions between peoples from Europe, western Africa, and the Americas.

From the sixteenth century onwards, the consolidation of long-distance sea routes fueled successive waves of cultural hybridization that had a significant impact on medical practice. Healers and patients traveled along these routes carrying exotic germs, medical textbooks, preconceived notions, and miraculous drugs. These nomadic agents were instrumental in the development of novel strategies for collecting, organizing, and processing vast amounts of information about the human body and the natural world. This exhibit is an attempt to show how transoceanic circulation contributed to the development of some of the healing practices, public health initiatives, and scientific principles that lie at the core of modern Western medicine.

1 annotation

Nicolás Monardes e.a.

Ioyfull nevves out of the newe founde worlde

1577

1 annotation

José de Acosta

Historia natural y moral delas Indias : en que se tratan las cosas notab...

1590

1 annotation

Francisco Hernández, and others

Nova plantarum, animalium et mineralium Mexicanorum historia

1651-1649

1 annotation

Willem Piso, and others

Historia naturalis Brasiliae : auspicio et beneficio illustriss. I. Maur...

1648

1 annotation

Christian Mentzel, and others

Pinax botanonymos polyglottos katholikos, Index nominum plantarum univer...

1682

1 annotation

Francisco Hernández e.a.

Quatro libros. De la naturaleza, y virtudes de las plantas, y animales q...

1615

1 annotation

Alonso López de Hinojosos e.a.

Summa y recopilacion de cirugia, con un arte para sangrar, y examen de barberos

1595

1 annotation

Agustín Farfán e.a.

Tractado brebe de medicina

1592

1 annotation

Contributor: Nic. van Geelkercken

Reys-boeck van het rijcke Brasilien, Rio de la Plata ende Magallanes : d...

1624

1 annotation

João Ferreira da Rosa e.a.

Trattado unico da constituiçam pestilencial de Pernambuco offerecido a ...

1694

1 annotation

Cristóbal de Hincapié Meléndez

Virtudes de la habilla del Dariel, que llaman de Guathemala

1739

1 annotation

Francisco Xavier de Balmis

Demostracion de las eficaces virtudes nuevamente descubiertas en las rai...

1794

1 annotation

Joseph Gumilla e.a.

Historia natural, civil y geografica de las naciones situadas en las riv...

1791

1 annotation

Jacques Grasset de e.a.

Sauvagesse Iroquoise

1751-1800

1 annotation

William Blake

Europe supported by Africa & America.

1751-1800

1 annotation

Nova reperta [graphic] / Ioan. Stradanus inuent ; Ph[i]l[ip]s Galle [mon...

1 annotation

James Grainger

The sugar-cane: a poem. : In four books. With notes.

1764

1 annotation

Collins, Dr, and others

Practical rules for the management and medical treatment of negro slaves...

1803

1 annotation

François Monginot e.a.

A new mystery in physick discovered, by curing of fevers & agues by quin...

1681

1 annotation

Francesco Torti, and others

Francisci Torti Mutinensis philosophae, et medicinae doctoris; in patrio...

1756

1 annotation

C. Ph. F Martius e.a.

Quinologia, o tratado del árbol de la quina ó cascarilla

1792

1 annotation

Bernardino Antonio Gomes

Ensaio sobre o cinchonino, e sobre sua influencia na virtude da quina, e...

1812

1 annotation

Lydia Byam

A collection of exotics, from the island of Antigua

1797

1 annotation

Thomas Tryon e.a.

Friendly advice to the gentlemen-planters of the East and West Indies

1684

1 annotation

Antonio Parra

Descripcion de diferentes piezas de historia natural las mas del ramo maritimo

1787

Credits

Project Creator(s)

The John Carter Brown Library