PREFACE TO THE BOTANICAL READER

we have added figures. Then we made available to the public the works of Matthiolus Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1501–1577), a famous Italian physician and botanist. and Tabernaemontanus Jacobus Theodorus Tabernaemontanus (1522–1590), a pioneer of German botany., both cleansed of errors and enlarged with many descriptions of new plants, illustrations, synonyms, and notes. We provided fifty succinct observations on the Universal History published at Lyon Referring to the Historia Generalis Plantarum (1586) by Jacques Daléchamps., and showed that about four hundred plants in that work were placed twice or three times; this was done not out of a desire for nitpicking, but to warn students so they would not strike the same rocks of error. And because, contrary to everyone's expectation, the publication of our BOTANICAL THEATER (Theatrum Botanicum) is delayed, two years ago the Introduction to our Theater (Prodromus) saw the light of day. It displays about six hundred plants first described by me—partly in the Phytopinax, partly in Matthiolus, and partly then for the first time—yet repeated there as my own, together with many entirely new figures. Finally, as copies of the Phytopinax have long been lacking, we now produce this INDEX (Pinax), which contains not only the published Phytopinax enlarged by more than a thousand entries, but also a second part never before published; indeed, it even displays the names and differences assigned by all botanists. And so that nothing should seem lacking, we have also diligently read through the descriptions of both the Indies East and West Indies. found in those great volumes cast together, as well as several other accounts of voyages to those same foreign regions published separately. We have also read the itineraries of Rauwolf, Belon, and others whom we mention here, with immense zeal and the greatest labor, for this sole purpose: to insert into this work those things worth remembering concerning plants and their names. All this is organized by the same method we shall use in our Theater. Students will be able to use this labor during their excursions for the sake of seeking out herbs; and those who live among us can add our Catalogue of plants growing around Basel, published a year ago, which shows their native locations, until our Theater comes forth—the first two books of which we have ready for the press and will be expected shortly.

In the meantime, we lovingly ask all cultivators and followers of this study that if they should happen to notice that I have slipped (which I do not doubt, but freely confess) or perhaps repeated the same plant twice, they should consider the immensity of this study, such that it can almost be called similar to the Ocean. For just as the miracles of GOD in the Ocean are unsearchable, so too the study of Botany is infinite, since new plants are found daily and brought to us from both the Indies. We most dutifully ask these same people that where they notice we have slipped, they warn us in a friendly and honest manner (I care nothing for the critic original: "Zoilum," a reference to Zoilus, a Greek grammarian known for spiteful criticism.). Once warned, we will give them thanks, and we will acknowledge and correct our errors. Indeed, if we notice any error in our words even without being warned, we will freely confess it, following our Dictator Hippocrates, who (to use the words of Celsus) recorded for memory that he had been deceived by the sutures Refers to a famous medical anecdote where Hippocrates admitted a mistake regarding the sutures of the skull., surely in the manner of great men who have confidence in great things; for slight minds, because they have nothing, take nothing away from themselves. To a great mind, which will nevertheless possess much, even a simple confession of a true error is fitting, especially in that service which is handed down to posterity for the sake of utility, lest any be deceived by the same reasoning by which someone was deceived before. For as Galen most rightly said: original Greek: "χαλεπὸν ἄνθρωπον ὄντα, μὴ διαμαρτάνειν ἐν πολλοῖς..." It is difficult, being human, not to fail in many things—sometimes through total ignorance, sometimes through poor judgment, and sometimes through careless writing.

A decorative printers' fleuron/ornament consisting of symmetrical scrolling foliage, floral patterns, and decorative tendrils, arranged in a broad, roughly triangular shape.