European Missionaries on the Traditional Georgian Medical culture (Arcangelo Lamberti)

The missioonaries activities increased in 17th century Georgia. The aim of the European missionaries was to spread and popularize the Catholicism. To achieve this aim, they were practicing the healing practices and describing the local ones. Arcangelos Lamberti collected important data on the Georgian traditional medicine: perceptions of the natives regarding the essence of illness, the remedies and practices. But it must be taken into consideration that the Theatines and Lamberti among them were not taking seriously the local traditional methods of healing. Their descriptions were tendentious for they wanted to demonstrate their own skills and knowledge to attract the attention of the local population.