Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides on Medical Matter

[...book], I have not only illustrated Dioscorides himself, so far as I was able, but have also described certain antidotes discovered by us. Moreover, following the ancient and customary practice of writers, when I was seeking a patron who might protect and defend these our commentaries from the envious, the malevolent, and the cavillers—and by whose majesty, authority, and splendor they might also be rendered somehow greater, weightier, and more illustrious—Your Most Serene Majesty first of all occurred to me, Most Powerful King FERDINAND, as one who, by your supreme virtue and immense clemency, has never failed to lift up anyone unjustly cast down, or to defend anyone affected by some injury.

Furthermore, it seemed to me very fitting that a work in which that matter is treated, in the study of which kings were once exceedingly delighted (as we have related above) and thereby won for themselves an everlasting name, should be dedicated to none other than a King, and especially to him who is possessed by a marvelous pleasure in natural philosophy and the medical art. Because Your Most Serene Majesty pursues the dignity and excellence of these faculties with the highest zeal and love, I therefore thought that by some right these our commentaries ought to be dedicated to you. This also led me to address them chiefly to Your Most Serene Majesty: that I certainly knew you receive the gifts of men of every condition with a very cheerful countenance and the greatest kindness; which provides the greatest evidence of Christian charity and religion. To this is also added the immense kindness of Your Most Serene Majesty toward all scholars, whom you continually promote, cherish, and protect; but especially toward physicians, whom you embrace with a singular kindness above others, as those who profess a divine rather than a human faculty. Which also Jesus Sirach, inspired by the divine spirit, left as a testimony among the Hebrews, when he says:

Medicine comes from the Most High, and from the king he shall receive gifts. The Lord created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man does not despise them. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be praised.

Thus says he. Furthermore, it might seem marvelous to all that Your Most Serene Majesty, although occupied almost day and night in the gravest business, functions of your empire, and cares—especially since you alone in the whole Christian Commonwealth continually offer yourself as the firmest bulwark against the most savage nations of the Turks—yet you never are accustomed to neglect devoting yourself in certain leisure hours to various studies of the sciences. But why should I say more about so great a King? Whose religion, justice, prudence, piety, generosity, liberality, beneficence, humanity, and probity are admired not only by the princes and peoples of the entire Christian Commonwealth, but also by other nations, since by no praises of men can those most distinguished endowments of his mind be sufficiently explained. It remains, therefore, that I most humbly ask Your Most Serene Majesty to receive with a joyful countenance, cherish, and protect this little gift of your servant, whatever it may be, as a testimony of my service. This I hope very much you will do; for if you weigh this gift, as it were of paper, it is indeed small, nor [worthy] of so great a king...