De Castro Family (Sephardi Jewish) - Benedict (Baruch) Nehamias de Castro

Benedict (Baruch) Nehamias De Castro

Physician in ordinary to Queen Christina of Sweden and writer on medicine, born at Hamburg in 1597, died there 31 January 1684

He attended the gymnasium of that city in 1615, received preparatory instruction in medicine from his father, Rodrigo de Castro, and later prosecuted this study at several universities. After his graduation at Padua (or at Franeker), he began to practise in Hamburg (1622), acquiring such fame that in 1645 he was appointed physician in ordinary to the queen of Sweden.

De Castro was for some time president of the Portuguese-Jewish congregation at Hamburg and was a zealous adherent of Sabbatai Zevi. He was twice married. In his old age he was reduced to such poverty that he was compelled to sell his library and furniture, to obtain the means of subsistence. This 'vir humanissimus', as Hugo Grotius calls him, was interred in the cemetery of the Portuguese congregation at Altona. The tombstone erected by his relatives bears the inscription: "Do Benaventurado muy insigne Varão o Doutor Baruch Nahamyas de Castro faleczo em 15. Sebat año 5444. Sua alma gloria."

De Castro, under the pseudonym Philotheo Castello, was the author of the following works.

• "Flagellum Calumniantium, seu Apologia in qua Anonymi Cujusdem Calumniæ Refutantur, Ejusdem Mentiendi Libido Detegitur", Amsterdam, 1631, a polemical work, in which the author defends physicians of Portuguese origin against the malicious attacks of a certain Joachim Curtius. It is said to have been published at Antwerp in 1629, under the title "Tratado da Calumnia em o qual Brevemente se Mostram a Natureza, Causas e Effeitos deste Pernizioso Vicio."
• "Monomachia sive Certamen Medicum, quo Verus in Febre Synocho Putrida cum Cruris Inflammatione Medendi Usus per Venæ Sectionem in Brachio ...." Hamburg, 1647, a work dedicated to Queen Christina.