CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK, WHICH TREATS OF THE HEALTHY LIFE.

Preface, in which it is argued that the health of the mind is to be placed before the health of the body.
The nine guides of scholars. chapter 1.
How diligent care must be taken of the brain, the heart, the stomach, and the spirit. chapter 2. In Ficino's medical philosophy, the "spirit" is a subtle vapor that acts as a bridge between the physical body and the soul.
Scholars are prone to phlegm and black bile. chapter 3. original: pituitae & atrae bili. According to the ancient theory of the four humors, an imbalance of these fluids caused illness and influenced personality.
How many causes there are by which scholars are or become melancholic. chapter 4.
Why melancholics are ingenious: and what sort of melancholics are of this kind, and what sort are the opposite. chapter 5. Ficino famously revived the Aristotelian idea that all great men of genius are melancholic.
In what way black bile contributes to genius. chapter 6.
The five principal enemies of scholars: phlegm, black bile, sexual intercourse, satiety, and morning sleep. chapter 7. The OCR reads sonus (sound), but the context and Ficino's other writings confirm this is a typo for somnus (sleep).
Which hour is more opportune for beginning studies, and what the manner of continuing them should be. chapter 8.
How phlegm is to be avoided. chapter 9.
By what means black bile is to be avoided. chapter 10.
Care of the stomach. chapter 11.
Concerning those things which nourish the principal limbs and the powers of the spirit. chapter 12.
Medicines against phlegm. chapter 13.
Catarrh destillatio: literally a "dripping," referring to the downward flow of excess humors from the head and its cure. chapter 14.
Headache and its cure. chapter 15.
Concerning the care of vision. chapter 16.
Concerning the restoration of the sense of taste. chapter 17.
Concerning the precise cure of black bile. chapter 18.
Concerning syrups. chapter 19.

Concerning pills. chapter 20.
Concerning liquid medicine. chapter 21.
Concerning bloodletting. chapter 22.
Concerning electuaries. electuary: a medicinal paste or conserve made by mixing powders with honey, sugar, or syrup chapter 23.
Concerning excessive wakefulness. chapter 24.
Concerning dullness and forgetfulness. chapter 25.
Indeed, care for the corporeal spirit; cultivate the incorporeal; and finally, venerate the truth. Medicine provides the first. Moral discipline provides the second. Religion provides the third. chapter 26.

Preface to the Second Book: On the Long Life.

Chapters of the same book.

A long life is necessary for the perfection of knowledge: which diligence also provides. chapter 1.
Vital heat is nourished by moisture: when it is lacking, dissolution occurs; when it is excessive, suffocation occurs. chapter 2.
How heat is to be tempered by moisture, and vice versa, by a certain counsel of Minerva. Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom; Ficino uses her here to signify a wise or intellectual balance in health. chapter 3.
For what reasons natural moisture dries up, or foreign moisture overflows. And how necessary perfect digestion is for life. chapter 4.
Blood and moisture suited for life ought to be airy, tempered in quality, and intermediate and tenacious in substance. chapter 5.
The common rule of eating and drinking, and the quality of feasts. chapter 6.
Do not use foods that rot quickly, nor [live] in regions of that kind... The list continues on the following page.