gems, corundum, history.1, beryl, emerald, diamond, Garcia de Orta, Goa, Portuguese Goa, Precious Stones, Lapidary Medicine, Asia, Sixteenth Century, history of Gemology, Indian lapidary

Somewhere in the city of Goa, on the west coast of India, on an unspecified day in the middle of the sixteenth century, two Europeans are involved in a learned conversation about elephants and ivory. One of them is Garcia de Orta, a renowned Portuguese physician trained at Alcala de Henares and Salamanca, and a longtime resident of the capital city of the Portuguese Estado da Índia, where he has been practicing medicine for many years; the other is Ruano, also a graduate from the same Spanish universities, and recently arrived in India on board of the Portuguese annual fleet from Lisbon for purposes of trade. The lively discussion is taking place at Orta’s residence, just before the evening meal, when both physicians are interrupted by a woman servant, who enters to announce the arrival of a visitor well-known to the master of the house: “Andrea from Milan, the lapidary, has just arrived”, and wishes to speak to Orta, concerning the sale of some precious stones. Apparently, the Portuguese physician is in the possession of two emeralds, a large one and a smaller but clearer one, and the Italian gem-trader has found a possible buyer for both gems. Garcia de Orta salutes the visitor and declares he is willing to sell both emeralds. This curious episode, one of the many that can be found in the pages of the Colóquios dos simples e drogas medicinais da Índia, published in Goa in 1563, raises several interesting questions, namely: the large network of informers that Orta brings into play throughout his learned colloquies; the methodology he uses to build a veritable encyclopedia of Asian natural history; the discreet but persistent involvement of the Portuguese naturalist in matters of merchandise; and also his attitude towards precious stones and the so-called lapidary medicine.