DEDICATION

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The author Aelian Claudius Aelianus, a 2nd-century Roman author and teacher of rhetoric asserts that in former times, only men of princely rank were permitted to practice medicine, MOST ILLUSTRIOUS, NOBLE, AMPLE, MAGNIFICENT, RENOWNED, REVEREND, LEARNED, EXCELLENT, AND MOST LEARNED MEN. For among the ancients, both the Hebrews and the Pagans, the entire Art was held in the highest honor and esteem, as was its significant pillar, botanical knowledge original Greek: γνῶσις βοτανική (gnōsis botanikē). The Hebrews, as they rightly establish God the Thrice Best and Greatest as the savior of all good things original Greek: πάντων ἐάων σωτῆρα (pantōn eaōn sōtēra), so also they credit Him with this life-saving science. Certainly among them, Solomon, the wisest of Kings the sun ever beheld, was most practiced in all other contemplation of natural beings original Greek: ὄντων φυσικῶν θεωρίᾳ (ontōn physikōn theōria); so too did he cultivate this faculty, as the sacred pages attest to us. He judged the lowliest herbs and the most vast trees to be equally worthy of observation original Greek: ἀξιοθεάτως (axiotheatōs), such that he wrote a history of plants from the Cedar of Lebanon even unto the Hyssop that springs out of the wall. Furthermore, he touched upon their powers—by which any affliction might be healed—in several books, which (as Flavius referring to the historian Flavius Josephus reports) Hezekiah removed from the Temple of Jerusalem for fear of idolatry original Greek: εἰδωλολατρείας (eidōlolatreias).

The Pagans judged this science worthy of the gods who were its inventors and cultivators. For at times they establish Apollo as its inventor, at other times Aesculapius, as well as Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra—as if one were to say "Son of the Linden Tree" original Greek: Φιλυρίδας (Philyridas). The author is making a wordplay on the Greek name for the linden tree, philyra; implying that he who wishes to act rightly in the botanical manner original Greek: βοτανικῶς (botanikōs) must necessarily devote himself to every kind of observation and experience. Indeed, among these people, not even Kings and Princes judged the investigation and skill of this part of Natural Philosophy to be beneath them. For many of them wished to distinguish plants they had discovered with their own proper names, and thus to repeat and impress the memory of themselves upon posterity every time the plants named after them original Greek: ὁμώνυμοι (homōnymoi) bud and sprout again. For Gentian is named after Gentius, King of the Illyrians; Lysimachia from Lysimachus of Macedonia; Climenon from Clymenus; and Telephium from Telephus, Kings of Mysia. I remain silent on the origins from which Chironium, Heraclea, Achillea, Helenium, Artemisia, and innumerable others like them obtained their names. Others are celebrated for the discovery of herbs alone: Scordium brought immortality of name to Mithridates, King of Pontus; Euphorbium to Juba of the Mauritanians; and Echium and Anchusa to Alcibiades, the leader of the Athenians. By this speculation alone, Attalus of Pergamum and Evax, Kings of the Arabs, shine among posterity: for it is read of the latter that he wrote to Tiberius Caesar concerning the nature of simple medicines (which...