CASTRO-SARMENTO, JACOB DE. Materia Medica Physico-Historico-Mechanica. Part I: Mineral Kingdom. Part II: Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms

(ENGLAND).

Wiliam Strahan

London

1758

Second Edition of Part I. FIRST EDITION of Part II. Foldout engraved frontispiece portrait of author by Houston (Rubens 2211)

Friedenwald, The Jews and Medicine, Vol. II, pp. 457-9; idem, Jewish Luminaries in Medical History, p.56; Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p.410, no. 26

MEDICAL WORK BY THE FIRST JEW TO GRADUATE A BRITISH UNIVERSITY Jacob (Henrique) de Castro-Sarmento (1691-1762) was born in Bragança, Portugal, studied philosophy at the University of Evora and medicine at the University of Coimbra. In 1720, he relocated to London to escape the Inquisition. He was awarded a medical degree by the University of Aberdeen in 1739 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society in relation to his successful medical research which produced treatises on vaccination, hydrotherapy, surgical instruments and more. Besides his medical writings, Castro-Sarmento authored works of particularly Jewish interest: Exemplar de Penitencia [three discourses for the Day of Atonement] (London 1724); Extraordinaria Providencia [paraphrase in Spanish verse of the Scroll of Esther] (London, 1724); and Sermaõ Funebre [a funeral sermon in memory of Haham David Nieto] (London, 1728). In 1724 Castro-Sarmento was accused of having denounced his fellow crypto-Jews in Portugal to the Inquisition. However, after careful deliberation, the Sephardic community of London cleared him of these false charges. See Kayserling, p. 37; A.M. Hyamson, The Sephardim of England, pp.106-109; J. Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History (1956) pp. 52, 452; EJ, Vol. V, cols.246-7; JE, Vol.III, p.612; I. Solomons, "David Nieto and Some of His Contemporaries" in TJHSE, Vol. XII (1928-1931), Appendix II (Dr. Jacob de Castro Sarmento) pp. 83-88