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This striking composition documents the healing practices of the Timucua people of sixteenth-century Florida, as described by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues and rendered in engraving by de Bry. The scene divides into several episodes of medical care: at left, a healer bleeds a patient by cutting the forehead and collects the blood in a vessel to be consumed by pregnant women as a strengthening agent. At center, a sick man is treated with steam and smoke from a fire, while a standing figure prepares additional herbs. At right, another patient inhales tobacco smoke under the direction of a medicine man.
The German caption, Welcherley Gestalt sie ihre Krancken zu heylen pflegen, translates as “The various ways they are accustomed to heal their sick.” The accompanying printed text below the image elaborates on Indigenous pharmacology and ritual practice, noting their use of sweat lodges, botanical remedies, bleeding, and tobacco fumigation. It also describes the cultural belief that pain must be drawn from the body, sometimes literally, and that women could absorb strength by consuming part of a warrior’s essence.
Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a prominent Flemish engraver and publisher best known for his engravings of the New World. Born in Liege, de Bry hailed from the portion of Flanders then controlled by Spain. The de Brys were a family of jewelers and engravers, and young Theodor was trained in those artisanal trades.
As a Lutheran, however, his life and livelihood were threatened when the Spanish Inquisition cracked down on non-Catholics. De Bry was banished and his goods seized in 1570. He fled to Strasbourg, where he studied under the Huguenot engraver Etienne Delaune. He also traveled to Antwerp, London, and Frankfurt, where he settled with his family.
In 1590, de Bry began to publish his Les Grands Voyages, which would eventually stretch to thirty volumes released by de Bry and his two sons. The volumes contained not only important engraved images of the New World, the first many had seen of the geographic novelties, but also several important maps. He also published a collection focused on India Orientalis. Les Grands Voyages was published in German, Latin, French, and English, extending de Bry’s fame and his view of the New World.
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