Abraham Zacuto Ⅳ (also, Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus, Zacuti Lusitani, Manuel Alvares de Tavara, 1575–1642), born in Lisbon, was a Portuguese-Jewish physician, medical teacher, researcher, and author. He studied medicine at the University of Salamanca and the University of Coimbra in Spain. At a time when the Inquisition was actively persecuting religious dissidents, scientists, and Jews. he was particularly vulnerable as a physician and a "New Christian," i.e., a Portuguese-Jewish converso. In 1631 he asked Benedictus de Castro to take action against the Christian detractors of Portuguese-Jewish medicine. He carried with him the strong reputation as a physician he developed in Portugal upon fleeing the Spanish Inquisition to Holland and the Collegium Medicum in Amsterdam. Zacuto was a great-great-grandson of the astronomer Abraham Zacuto, his namesake, master of the astrolabe.
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Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation), Abraham Zacuto Ⅳ
This prayer concludes the second volume of the late Renaissance medical tome Opera Omnia by Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus (Abraham Zacuto Ⅳ), published posthumously in 1644. While his Peroratio (Conclusion) is addressed to the critical reader, I think it is crucial to read it in the context of his life as a “New Christian,” i.e., a Portuguese-Jewish physician and converso, ever vulnerable to the attention of the Inquisition or from others who might profit or take petty pleasure in his downfall. . . .
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