Healing arts in dutch Brazil: the construction of medical and dietetical knowledge on the relationship between Old and New World

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate how the construction of medical and dietetical knowledge was set in the context of the dutch occupation of Pernambuco (1630-1654), considering on the one hand, the several changes in European intellectual environment, and on the other hand, the conjuncture of political consolidation of the Republic of the Netherlands and a brief period of overseas expansion, which put the dutchs in direct contact with the New World. To this end, we will analyze the studies by Willem Piso (1611-1678) and George Marcgrave (1610-1644), developed in Brazil with the Maurice of Nassau’s retinue (1637-1644). Addressing specifically the texts of physician Willem Piso, we intend to observe the creation of new knowledge given by the relationship between the changes in the medical paradigm, otherness and the dutch colonization project.