Benedictus de Castro

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Benedictus / Benedito de Castro , also Baruch Namias , (* around 1597 in Hamburg ; † January 31, 1684 ibid) was a doctor , author and community leader .

Live and act

Benedictus de Castro was a son of the doctor Rodrigo de Castro . He studied medicine at the University of Franeker and received his doctorate there on September 3, 1624. He then practiced, according to Hugo Grotius as "vir humanissimus", in Hamburg. De Castro quickly became a recognized doctor. Christine of Sweden was one of his patients in 1645 and lived in his house. The doctor dedicated the book Monomachia to her in 1647 . Although, or precisely because, he was very successful, Christian doctors and Lutheran clergymen repeatedly attacked de Castro. This included the doctor Joachim Curtius (1585–1642), who anonymously published the diatribe Exhortatio celeberr in Hamburg in 1631 . et excellentis [...] dictata cur judei et agyptae a congressu et praxi medica arcendi sint et eliminandi wrote, which is now considered lost. The well-known physician Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus advised Benedictus de Castro to take public action against this. De Castro wrote in the same year under the pseudonym Philo Theo Castello Scripture flagellum calumniantium in which he "lies and slander" against Christian physicians Portuguese-Jewish doctors sharply criticized and presented the achievements of Jewish physicians. This work, in which he repeatedly emphasized the doctor's responsibility for society, can be seen as a supplement to the book Medicus Politicus that his father had written. Like his father, de Castro saw doctors as having a duty to heal the human soul and body so that they would be able to reproduce the divine harmony of the universe in social harmony.

In 1652 de Castro signed the agreement to found the Portuguese-Jewish community "Bet Israel", of which he was a member of the board from 1654 and for which he took on other honorary posts. As a representative of the community, he threatened that the community would withdraw from Hamburg if they were prevented from freely practicing their religion and from attending school. In 1666 he was a major supporter of Shabbtai Zvi . Due to economic problems, de Castro had to sell his important library in the last years of his life. His grave can be found today in the Jewish cemetery in Altona .

Fonts

  • Benedicti a Castro Lusitani, Serenissimae ac Potentissimae Principis ac Dominae Dn. Christinae, Suecorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumq [ue] Reginae, & c. Medici Monomachia sive Certamen Medicum: Quo verus in febre synocho putrida cum cruris inflammatione medendi usus per venae sectionem in brachio demonstratur ... Hamburgi: Rebenlinus 1647
Digital copy , Hamburg State and University Library

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Castro, Benedictus de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Castro, Benedito de; Namibia, Baruch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doctor, author and community leader
DATE OF BIRTH around 1597
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1684
Place of death Hamburg