Fundo Bibliográfico Antigo da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra: Séc. XV-XVIII

Authors

Maria da Graça Pericão
Universidade de Coimbra

Synopsis

Of the 581 titles that make up the old bibliographical collection of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, covering the 15th to 18th centuries, only five fall into the 15th century, thus constituting the so-called incunabula, the oldest cluster. From the 16th century names such as Amato Lusitano, Aristotle, Avicena, Guido de Chauliac, Dioscórides, Hippocrates, Galeno, Jacopo da Forli, Rasis, o "damasceno" Mesue and Pedro Julião or Pedro Hispano can be highlighted. These are the main manuals that contain, for the most part, commentaries to the Greek classics of medicine, particularly Galen, Hippocrates and Dioscorides, since the medieval study made from the commentary, usually graphically translated by the original text of the auctoritas occupying the center of the page, highlighted by the body of the type and surrounded by the commentary or glosa, was still very present in the 16th century. In matters as sensitive as medicine, the statements had to be based on any of the authors recognized as authorities. From the 17th century there are some works by Portuguese authors such as Duarte Madeira Arrais, Manuel de Azevedo, Rodrigo de Castro (according to some the founder of Portuguese obstetrics), Rodrigo da Fonseca, Tomás Rodrigues da Veiga and Abraão Zacuto, this one printed in Lyon and Amsterdam, as well as some of those mentioned above, which attests to the international recognition of the studies of these Portuguese authors. From the 18th century, along with pharmacopoeias, there are a significant number of works of surgery, some of which are of Portuguese authorship and numerous dictionaries on medical subjects, History of Medicine and, curiously, portable health dictionaries, in the line of treaties on the health of peoples. Portuguese authors such as Jacob de Castro Sarmento, João Curvo Semedo, Feliciano de Almeida and others, publish their works in Portugal and abroad. The production of works on Physiology, Medical Physics and Conservative and Preventive Medicine is intensified. The present work describes in detail each one of the copies of this fund, giving special emphasis to its provenance attested by the numerous handwritten notes, in its great majority religious congregations, of which the Bookstore of the Monastery of St. Augustine's Regranted Canons with 337 copies and some old university colleges that had, in fact, in number and quality varied, bibliographic nuclei that supported the religious and student populations that frequented them.

Author Biography

Maria da Graça Pericão, Universidade de Coimbra

Maria da Graça Pinheiro da Cruz Pericão has a degree in Romance philology from the Faculty of Letters of the U.C., where she also obtained a post-graduate degree in the librarian-archivist programme, having worked mainly in the reserved section of the university’s General Library. In the eight years preceding her retirement, she served in the Central Library of the Faculty of Medicine of the same university. For 26 years, as a guest assistant to the University of Coimbra’s specialization programme in documentary sciences, she taught classes on “Ancient Books” and “Conservation and Restoration”, subjects that she also taught at the University of the Azores. She has carried out various assignments in the area of her specialty, collaborating in the organization of libraries with old foundations (16th-18th centuries), especially those she undertook in five diocesan seminars and the treatment of old foundations belonging to institutions such as the Library of the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, the Portuguese Institute of Santo António in Rome, the Casa Cadaval (Muge), the old collection of the library at the Faculty of Law of the U.C., and the District Archives of Bragança. On several trips to Brazil, she had the opportunity to write the catalogue of incunabula and 16th-century books of a private library in São Paulo, which constitutes the largest collection of books from the 1500s in that country. She gave lectures in various parts of the country and in Brazil, dealing with the history of the book and the preservation of bibliographic heritage. She has published several pieces in these areas, of which we highlight her studies on the history of books, covering subjects such as the Inquisition, the 15th century editions of Damião de Góis, and André de Resende, published in the General Library of the University of Coimbra (co-authored), where she also published the study "Restauração - Catálogo da Colecção Visconde da Trindade". At the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the INCM/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation published the "Portuguese Marian Bibliography of the 17th and 18th centuries" ("Bibliografia Mariana Portuguesa dos séculos XVII e XVIII") and the study of the Jorge de Faria Room's Cordel literature collection at FLUC. In the area of bibliographic terminology, she co-authored the "Dicionário do Livro" ("Book Dictionary") (1st edition in 1988, re-edited in 1999 and 2008 [Coimbra, Almedina]). In the same year, the work would be published at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). Finally, in 2015, still in the area of terminology, the Gastronomic vocabulary was published with the title "Do comer e do falar tudo vai do começar" [From eating and talking everything comes from the beginning] (Relógio d´Água) in co-authorship with Ana M. Pereira. Work published in the IUC: Books of the 1500s of the Visconde da Trindade collection.

Published
October 1, 2020

Details about the available publication format: PDF

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ISBN-13 (15)
978-989-26-1827-2
doi
10.14195/978-989-26-1827-2
Physical Dimensions
160mm x 230mm

Details about the available publication format: Amazon

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