TO THE MOST SERENE

AND MOST PUISSANT

PRINCE FERDINAND,

KING OF THE ROMANS, OF HUNGARY,

AND OF BOHEMIA, ETC.,

INFANTE OF SPAIN, ARCHDUKE

OF AUSTRIA, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, ETC.

A large decorative historiated woodcut initial 'C' depicting two men in a landscape; one man is seated on a rock or stump on the left while another man stands on the right, gesturing towards him. A large tree trunk is in the background.

Since not only the most ancient writers, Most Serene King FERDINAND, but also many of the more recent ones, attribute the whole of medicine to the immortal Gods, and for that reason rightly consider it the most ancient, most celebrated, and divine science: so they especially judge that part of it which treats the doctrine of medicines original: "medicamentorum doctrinam"; referring here to pharmacology and the study of healing substances to be worthy of being credited to the Gods themselves, and held as plainly divine. For they do not think it possible that man, by his own power, could investigate, obtain, and have a clear understanding of the hidden natures and powers of plants, animals, or minerals, unless he had first been taught them by the greatest Maker of all things. For this reason, there is no lack of most esteemed authors who—rejecting the trifles of the poets and others who have written fabulously about the inventors of medicine—firmly believe and prove by reasoning that God, the Best and Greatest, indicated the powers of plants and of all other things which the earth brings forth to Adam, the first progenitor of the human race. They believe He infused the knowledge of them into him at the same time that He breathed the light of life into him, after he was formed from the earth. From him, they maintain that the succeeding age drew its knowledge of all things, and thereafter, as industry increased, began to seek out matters more deeply and diligently: so that from this source, the greatest amount of knowledge and distinction first accrued to the medical art. When countless wise men had later observed this, and had known the excellence and utility of this faculty to be very great, they were captured by the pleasure of it, and they also bestowed their study upon investigating and learning the science of herbs herbaria: the study of plants and their medicinal properties and the other things of which that science treats. This is abundantly witnessed by Pythagoras, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Democritus, Zoroaster, Xenophon, Amphilochus, Athenaeus, Philisthenes, Apollodorus, Aristander, Hipparchus, Aristomachus, Bion, Agathocles, Diodorus, Diocles of Carystus, Epigenes, Evagoras, Praxagoras, Crateuas, Erasistratus, Metrodorus, Nicesius, Pamphilius, Mantias, Herophilus, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, and many others of the ancients, whose names—lest [the list] be longer...