Gabriel da Fonseca
A bust of Fonseca by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, located in San Lorenzo in Lucina
Bornc. 1586
Lamego, Portugal
Died20 May 1668
Rome, Italy
OccupationPhysician

Gabriel da Fonseca (c. 1586 - 1668)[1][2] was a Portuguese New Christian physician of the 17th century who worked as Pope Innocent X’s personal physician. He was a nephew of physician Rodrigo da Fonseca.[3]

Born in Lamego to Lisbon treasurer Diogo Rodrigues Fonseca[3][1] and Isabel Gomes, he studied at the University of Pisa in 1603, receiving his doctorate in 1609.[3][1] It was common for Portuguese physicians to study in Italy during this time due to the prestige Italian institutions offered. It is possible Fonseca left Portugal to hide his Jewish origins, as Philip II of Portugal had, in 1604, by royal decree, officially excluded Jews from studying or practicing medicine.[1]

Fonseca was Professor of Logic at the Academy of Pisa from 1609 to 1611. Afterwards he left for Rome to tend to bishop Gaspar de Borja y Velasco,[1] and where he became Professor of Medicine at La Sapienza University for twenty-eight years.[3]

After Giovanni Battista Pamphili was elected Pope in 1644, Fonseca was hired as his personal physician, for which he was paid well. Pamphili had such strong trust in Fonseca that he regarded him not only as his physician but also as a private advisor.[3]

This lasted for eight years until, on 28 March 1654, the Pope expelled Fonseca and refused to see him.[3][2] According to Rome chronicler Giacinto Gigli (1594-1671), Fonseca had defended a barber who had bled the irascible Pope.[3][1]

Fonseca was an associate of Irish plague doctor Niall Ó Glacáin.[1]

He died on 20 May 1668 in Rome.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Novoa, James William Nelson. "Medicine, learning and Self Representation in seventeenth century Italy" (PDF). Humanismo, Diáspora e Ciência. Universidade de Lisboa: 213–232.
  2. 1 2 Novoa, James William Nelson (2015). "Gabriel da Fonseca. A New Christian doctor in Bernini's Rome". Humanismo e Ciência: Antiguidade e Renascimento.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Gabriel da Fonseca". 2006.
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