António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches was born in Penamacor on 7 March 1699. He was the son of Simão Nunes, a shoemaker and merchant, and Ana Nunes Ribeiro. His family belonged to the New Christian population of Beira Baixa, descended from Jews forced to convert in Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century.

New Christian origins and exile

In 1716, Ribeiro Sanches enrolled at the University of Coimbra, where he studied in the field of law. He later moved to Salamanca, where he studied medicine and completed his medical training in 1724.

In 1726, he left Portugal after being denounced to the Inquisition for practices associated with Judaism. This departure placed him within the wider movement of Portuguese New Christians who left the kingdom because of inquisitorial persecution, family pressure, or the search for religious and intellectual freedom.

Ribeiro Sanches in the Sephardic diaspora

His exile first took him to London, where he entered the Portuguese Sephardic environment connected to Bevis Marks and to members of his own family. He later continued his medical formation on the continent and reached Leiden, where he studied under Herman Boerhaave, one of the most influential medical teachers of eighteenth-century Europe.

In 1731, Ribeiro Sanches went to Russia after Boerhaave recommended him for service at the Russian court. He worked as a military physician and later became connected to the imperial medical world of Saint Petersburg. In 1739, he was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg and was also recognized by the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

After leaving Russia, he settled in Paris in 1747. There he lived among the intellectual networks of the Enlightenment and remained active as a physician, writer and reformist thinker. His works included Dissertation sur la Maladie Vénérienne, Tratado da Conservação da Saúde dos Povos, Cartas sobre a Educação da Mocidade, Método para Aprender e Estudar a Medicina and Mémoire sur les Bains de Vapeur en Russie.

The Casa da Memória and Ribeiro Sanches

António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches became one of the major Portuguese physicians and intellectuals of the eighteenth century. His life connects Penamacor to New Christian history, the Inquisition, the Sephardic diaspora, medical reform, Enlightenment thought and the circulation of scientific knowledge across Europe.

He died in Paris on 14 October 1783. Today, his memory is presented in Penamacor through the Casa da Memória da Medicina Sefardita Ribeiro Sanches, whose upper floor is dedicated to his life, writings and European intellectual network.