“COMO OS MÉDICOS SE HÃO DE FAZER BACHAREIS FORMADOS”

EDIÇÃO E UM BREVE GLOSSÁRIO DE UMA LEI DE 1566

Abstract

The sixteenth-century printed work entitled Ley passada nouamente sobre os fisicos da vniuersidade de Coimbra, available in the digital collection of the National Library of Portugal, provides a source for understanding the process of regulating medical education at the University of Coimbra during the reign of King Sebastião. Comprising a single folio, written on both recto and verso, the document reveals, through its recorded lexicon, aspects of the Crown’s concerns regarding the practice of the “art of healing” in Portuguese society of the time. This undoubtedly provides clues for understanding the impacts of such regulations on the sixteenth-century Portuguese university and on the territories colonized by Portugal from the sixteenth century onwards. The present study offers a semi-diplomatic edition of this document and a brief glossary—prepared according to the principles of historical-variational lexicography—containing 13 lexical items related to institutional organization, social representations, and educational practices connected to medicine in the sixteenth century.