Life
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, in Spain, he left his native country of Portugal in fear of the Inquisition. He went to Antwerp, Belgium for a time and then traveled through Holland 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, delivering lectures on anatomy and 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.
Meanwhile his reputation grew higher and higher. Jacoba del Monte, sister of Pope Julius III, was one of his patients; and he prescribed also for Julius himself, to whose sick-bed he was later summoned.
With the accession of Paul IV, Amatus underwent all the sufferings which the Maranos of Ancona had to endure from this pope. He took refuge in Pesaro, leaving behind him all his possessions, including several manuscript works, the loss of which he greatly deplored. One of these manuscripts, however, the fifth part of his Centuriæ, was later restored to him and published. During his sojourn at Pesaro he received an invitation from the municipality of Ragusa to settle there. This he accepted, but after staying for some months he left the city for Thessaloniki, where he openly professed the Jewish faith. Lusitano died there in 1568.
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