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Saintly Physician, DiabolicalDoctor, MedievalSaint:Exploring theReputation ofGilde Santarém inMedievaland Renaissance Portugal IONA MCCLEERY In theNationalLibrary ofMedicinein theUnitedStatescan be founda largecompilation ofherbalrecipesentitledRemedies forvarious illnesses, whichwas translated fromCatalan into Italian in Perpignanon 24 May1463. The translator informs us in hisprologuethattheworkhad originally beencompiledbythethirteenth-century Portuguese Dominican friar, Gilde Santarém, and he saysofGilthat: Before heentered the[Dominican] order hewasa master ofarts andmedicine and[.. .] after hewasintheorder hewasa great theologian [. . .] Andheended hislifeonthedayoftheAscension ofOurLord Jesus Christ [. . .] inthetown calledSantarém intheconvent ofhisorder in [. . .] Portugal. [. . .] after his death atthis tomb miracles were performed andheisstill heldingreat devotion throughout that kingdom. AndI thescribe havebeentothat placeandconvent and heardofmany ofhismiracles and notabledeedsin lifeand in death. Amongst others ofa wellbuilt intheconvent, heldtobeanimpossible thing in that placewhere there isa great lackofwater. Somesaiditwasdonebydivine power, others that itwasdonebytheart ofmagic for somesaidthat hewasa great necromancer. * This passageactsas an introduction to the threemain threadsthat make up Gil's reputation:masterof medicine,miracle-working saint, and necromancer.2 Theyare closelyintertwined threadsthatprobably began to be wound togetherduringGil's lifetime and continuedto form a densenetoflegendcenturies after hisdeath.The aimhereis to unravelthesethreethreadsa littleand explorethewayin whichGil's enduring reputation illustrates theextenttowhichmedicine,magicand religion areboundtogether as methods ofexplaining andcontrolling the universe and itsworkings.3 1National Library ofMedicine, Bethesda MD,MS 22 (Rimedii de diverse malatie), fol.17. According to theprologue, theoriginal language ofthecompilation wasLatin,butthereis no indication ofwhenitwastranslated intoCatalan. I amresponsible forall translations into English. The original version ofthisarticle wasgivenat theSociety forSpanishand Portuguese Historical Studies meeting inMadrid inJuly 2003.1would liketothank my fellow panellists Lisa Abend, JonArrizabalaga andAndrew Keitt fortheir insights, andalsoSimonTugwell OP and Maria JoãoBranco forthehelpthey originally gavemeformy doctoral thesis, aspects ofwhich appearinthis article. 3ForGil'scareer, see Iona McCleery, Opportunities forteaching and studying medicine SAINTLY PHYSICIAN, DIABOLICAL DOCTOR, MEDIEVAL SAINT II3 Gilde Santarém wasborninthelastquarter ofthetwelfth century into a noblefamily ofCoimbra.Overtheyearstherehavebeen considerable doubtsabouthisfamily background, buttheevidencenowsuggests that he wasprobably theson ofJuliãoPais (d. 1215), chancellorto thefirst threePortuguesekings,and therefore connectedto some of the most prominent families oflate-medieval Portugal.4 Gilpursueda careeras a physician and churchman, probablyentering the DominicanOrderin c. 1225 in Paris,wherehe appearsto havestudiedand perhapstaught medicine.5 The mostimportant medievalsourceforGil'slifeis the Vitae fratrum, a Dominicancompilation ofinspirational storiesdatingfromc. 1260,whichincludessomestories contributed byGiland others written abouthim.Humbert de Romans(d. 1277),whoinitiated theVitae fratrum project whilehewasMaster Generaloftheorder, knew Gilwellasa novice inParis,and reported: he sawmany signsofhumility and obedienceand othervirtues inhim.Forwhen thebrothers wereintheschools, hewenthimself tothelatrines and,thosewhich he founddirty, he cleaned,carriedout thewasteoftheinfirmary, and washed thebowlsand dishes,as faras he wassecretly able todo so. [. . .] Always praying in medieval Portugal before thefoundation oftheUniversity ofLisbon(1290)', Dynamis, 20 (2000),305-29;Jorge Custódio (ed.), S.Frei GildeSantarém ea suaÉpoca, (Santarém: Câmara Municipal de Santarém, 1997); DanielleJacquart and GérardTroupeau(eds), Le Livre des axiomes médicaux (aphorismi) (Geneva: Droz,1980),pp. 88-104;Maximiano Lemos,História da Medicina em Portugal: Doutrinas eInstituções, 2 vols, 2n edn (Lisbon: Publicações DomQuixote/ Ordem dosMédicos, 1991),I,pp.31-33. 4The obitusually accepted as thatofGilde Santarém iscertainly that ofGilJuliães, canon ofViseuandCoimbra, andsonofChancellor Julião. See Pierre DavidandTorquato de Sousa Soares (eds), Liberanniversariorum ecclesiae cathedralis Colimbriensis (Livrodas kalendas),2 vols (Coimbra[no publisher given],1947),I, p. 246; I. Fleisch, 'Kirch, Königtum undgelehrtes Rechtim hochmittelalterlichen Portugal', (unpublished master's dissertation, University of Bamberg, 1998),p. 71,η. 395. OtherclueslinkGilde Santarém tothis family; forexample, hedescribed himself astheconsanguineus ofFernando Peres, Julião Pais'snephew orgrandson: Benedict Maria Reichert (ed.),'Vitae fratrum ordinis Praedicatorum', Monumenta ordinis fratrum Praedicatorum histórica, 1 (1896),p. 262;Maria José Azevedo Santos, 'Fernando Peres, ex-chantre daSédeLisboa', Arquivo Histórico Dominicano Português, 3:1(1984),243-58.Fora full discussion, seelonaMcCleery, 'TheLifeandLegendofGilesofSantarém, Dominican Friar andPhysician (d. 1265):a Perspective on Medieval Portugal', (unpublished doctoral thesis, University ofSt Andrews, 2000),ch.4. DTheprologue ofRemedies for various illnesses istheonlysourcetodescribe Gilas master 01 arts andmedicine', butitprompted onehistorian tosuggest that Giltaught themorefamous Portuguese physician Petrus Hispanus: Mary Wack, Lovesickness inthe Middle Ages: the 'Viaticum' anditsCommentaries (Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press,1990),p. 84. Itwaslong accepted that Petrus Hispanus wasbornc.1220soitwould havebeenimpossible for Giltoteach himbefore returning toPortugal. L.M.de Rijkargued foran earlier birth dateof1205-10,in which caseGilcouldhavebeenoneofPetrus 'sArts teachers, buthisarguments havesincebeen challenged. SeeHenri-Dominique Simonin, 'LesSummulae logicalesde Petrus Hispanus', Archives d'histoire...
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