Search Results - Farfán, Agustín, 1532-1604

Agustín Farfán

Pedro Garcia Farfán (1532–1604), better known as Agustín Farfán, was a Spanish medical missionary who studied medicine in Seville, Spain, initially serving as a physician for King Phillip II before moving to New Spain with his family in 1557, where he continued his studies and became one of the first to receive a medical degree from the National Autonomous University of New Spain. Upon the death of his wife in 1568, Farfán joined the Order of Saint Augustine and became a prominent figure in the Agustinian order, contributing to the construction and maintenance of convents there.

Farfán went on to perform therapeutic experiments in the Hospital Real de Naturales and serve as protomedic for New Spain, devising one of the earliest medical manuals there. He incorporated both European and indigenous medical knowledge into a treatise that would be published a total of three times, first as ''Tratado breve de anathomía y chirugía'' in 1579, and then ''Tratado Breve de Medicina'' in 1592, before his work was posthumously updated in 1610. Farfán is commemorated as a revolutionary doctor and surgeon who was endorsed by the viceroy of New Spain at the time for his ability to offer alternative treatments and medical knowledge accessible to a wide audience, including back in Europe. Provided by Wikipedia