Abraham Curiel (1545-1609), alias Jeronimo Nunes Ramires, was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and the son of the wealthy merchant Jacob Curiel of Coimbra of

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

. Curiel is described in several sources as "one of the greatest doctors of his time."

Education

Abraham Curiel was born to Jacob Curiel of Coimbra and was sent to be educated at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The ...

Coimbra, Portugal Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest ci ...

between 1562 and 1570.

Curiel family

He wed Sara Curiel, alias Maria de Fonseca, with whom he fathered 11 children, including

Jacob Curiel Dom Jacob Curiel (26 September 1587 - 3 April 1664), known by his alias Dom Duarte Nunes da Costa, was a Sephardi Jewish merchant, diplomat, and nobleman. Curiel was educated at the University of Coimbra and the University of Bologna. In 1618 he ...

and David Curiel. His brother was

Francisco de Vitoria Francisco de Vitoria ( – 12 August 1546; also known as Francisco de Victoria) was a Spanish Roman Catholic philosopher, theologian, and jurist of Renaissance Spain. He is the founder of the tradition in philosophy known as the School of Sa ...

, a

Bishop in the Catholic Church In the Catholic Church, a bishop is an ordained minister who holds the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teaching doctrine, governing Catholics in his jurisdiction, sanctifying the world and representing the Chu ...

. He was an eminent Portuguese physician and shortly after his death Sara fled the Lisbon inquisition to

Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Medical work

Curiel qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1567 and remained at the University of Coimbra for further studies in medicine. In 1987, British historian

Jonathan Israel Jonathan Irvine Israel (born 26 January 1946) is a British writer and academic specialising in Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jews. Israel was appointed as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies a ...

wrote "Dr Jeronimo Nunes Ramires himself showed much less zest for travel than most of his brothers and is mainly noted for his long Latin treatise on blood-letting." This "360-page Latin treatise on blood-letting" was "inspired in a large part by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be on ...

, the ''De Ratione Curandi per Sanguinis''."

References

1545 births 1609 deaths Portuguese Jews 16th-century Portuguese physicians 16th-century Jewish physicians 17th-century Jewish physicians Crypto-Jews University of Bologna alumni Curiel family 17th-century Portuguese physicians European Sephardi Jews {{Portugal-med-bio-stub