>Iconodocks at 15:15, 15 April 2021

2021-04-15T15:15:40Z

New page

[[File:Goa Stone and Gold Case MET DP116021.jpg|thumb|[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/454738 Goa Stone and container], probably from Goa, India, late 17th–early 18th century.]]
A '''Goa stone''' or '''Lapis de Goa''' was a man-made [[bezoar]] that was considered to have medicinal and [[Talisman (disambiguation)|talismanic]] properties. Goa stones were made in [[Goa]], [[India]] and exported to apothecaries in Europe from the mid-16th to 18th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=Goa Stone with Gold Case|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/454738|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=19 November 2017}}</ref> Goa stones were manufactured by [[Jesuits]] in the late seventeenth century in Goa because naturally occurring bezoars were scarce.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bailly|first1=Muriel|title=Foolish Remedies: Goa Stone|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/foolish-remedies-goa-stone|website=Wellcome Collection|publisher=Wellcome Collection|accessdate=19 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033146/https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/foolish-remedies-goa-stone|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their inventor was the Florentine lay brother Gaspar Antonio, and a Jesuit monopoly was confirmed by the Portuguese on March 6, 1691.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalarch00fons|title=An Historical and Archæological Sketch of the City of Goa: Preceded by a Short Statistical Account of the Territory of Goa|last=Fonseca|first=José Nicolau da|date=1878|publisher=Thacker & Company, limited|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historicalarch00fons/page/317 317]|language=en}}</ref> They were created by combining organic and inorganic materials including hair, fossil shark teeth, shells, tusks, resin, and crushed gems, then shaping the materials into a ball and covering it with gilt. Like [[bezoar]] stones, Goa stones were thought to prevent [[disease]] and cure [[poisoning]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Bezoar Stone with Case and Stand|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/452963|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=19 November 2017}}</ref> They could be administered by shaving off small pieces into a drinkable beverage like [[water]], [[tea]], or [[wine]].<ref>{{cite book|doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-809554-6.00012-3|chapter=Fossil Sharks' Teeth as Alexipharmics|title=Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance|pages=125–133|year=2017|last1=Duffin|first1=Christopher J.|isbn=9780128095546}}</ref>

After the death of Gaspar Antonio the recipe went to Father Jorge Ungarate. The Jesuits were forced to leave Goa in 1759 and these stones were then produced by [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin friars]] at the Convento da Madre de Deus until 1835. The secret recipe was then passed on to Manuel do Carmo Pacheco who produced thestones until his death in 1868.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Duffin, Christopher|year=2010|title=Lapis de Goa: the 'cordial stone'|journal=Pharmaceutical Historian|volume=40|issue=2|pages=22–30|pmid=20695233}}</ref> The stones made their way to England as well and an early mention is made in 1686 by Gideon Harvey who was sceptical of the curative value noting that they were confected from a "''jumble of Indian Ingredients''" by "''knavish Makers and Traffickers.'''"<ref>{{cite journal|last=Duffin|first=Christopher|year=2010|title=Lapis de Goa: the 'Cordial Stone'-part two|journal=Pharmaceutical Historian|volume=40|issue=3|pages=42–46}}</ref>

Goa stones were kept in ornate, solid [[gold]] or gilded cases that were believed to enhance the medicinal properties of the stones.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Grundhauser|first1=Eric|title=The Man-Made Gut Stones Once Used to Thwart Assassination Attempts|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-manmade-gut-stones-once-used-to-thwart-assassination-attempts|website=Atlas Obscura|publisher=Atlas Obscura|accessdate=19 November 2017|date=2016-07-05}}</ref> The cases usually featured a busy network of [[filigree]], occasionally adorned with ornaments of animals, including [[monkeys]], [[unicorns]], [[dogs]], and [[parrots]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ekhtiar|first1=Maryam|title=Paradox|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I_5H5EetEE|website=YouTube|publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=19 November 2017}}</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:History of medicine in India]]
[[Category:Colonial Goa]]
[[Category:Jesuit Asia missions]]
[[Category:Containers]]

Goa stone - Revision history

>Iconodocks at 15:15, 15 April 2021