Phytognomonica

The weasel, when embroiled in a fight with mice, protects itself with rue; the stork uses oregano, and wild boars heal themselves with ivy when they are sick. The snake, its sight dimmed by its winter hiding place, refreshes its eyes with the fennel herb; if indeed its scales have grown stiff, it scratches itself against the spines of a juniper. The dragon In Renaissance natural history, "dragon" (draco) often referred to large serpents or pythons described in classical texts. quenches its springtime nausea with the juice of wild lettuce. The elephant, having swallowed a chameleon, counters this poison with the wild olive. The deer resists poisonous fodder with the thistle herb. original: "herba cinare" Wood pigeons, jackdaws, blackbirds, and partridges purge their yearly sluggishness with a laurel leaf. Doves, turtledoves, and chickens use the pellitory herb. original: "herba helxine" Ducks, geese, and other water birds use ironwort. original: "herba syderite" Cranes use the marsh rush; the raven, after killing a chameleon, extinguishes the harmful poison with laurel—and there are countless such examples.

If, therefore, animals recognize harmful and beneficial herbs from known signs, why must we imagine that humans are left without typesmodels or visible signs from which these same things could be tracked? We cannot imagine that the manner of divine and supreme wisdom is lacking, by which it could easily have provided this. Therefore, the signs are not lacking; they are not lacking.

Whence, wandering through remote countrysides, pathless mountain peaks, groves, and forests, I contemplated with all my strength the manifold form of plants, the variegated colors of their flowers, the number, shape, and cutting of their leaves, as well as their roots, stems, and branches. I observed their way of springing from the earth, growing, and bearing fruit—things so various and diverse—thinking that nothing was made rashly or by chance, but that all things were created with reason and an ordered cause (as the greatest Ptolemy says, especially regarding these most beautiful living things, the plants). Nor is there anything so base in the nature of things in which some miracle does not shine forth.

I considered, astonished, a plant shining with such a cheerful and vivid color, breathing out such a sweet odor, and finally possessing such marvelous beauty and elegance that it seemed to smell of celestial majesty. It acted as a magnet, drawing the eyes of onlookers to contemplate the opulence of nature; I found that this same plant possessed powers friendly to man and was most highly accepted for the use of Physicians.

On the contrary, another was so unlovely and deformed in its appearance that it struck terror into the one looking at it from a distance by its foul smell or color; this very plant was later discovered to possess a deadly gift and certain destruction. I wondered at related herbs, in which much equality and similarity intervened, providing almost the same remedies, so that Physicians might substitute one for another. Conversely, in those where there was no kinship, there was no shared power. And if there were any that seemed composed of different types, they possessed the combined faculties of both.

To this was added a consensus and a certain silent, natural divinationintuitive insight or foreknowledge of men, so that each person might take up herbs to drive away their diseases which seemed to do so by a certain similarity. By weighing these things, and with divine help suggesting it, the idea fell into my mind: just as our inward character can be investigated from outward bodily signs, and just as hunters, horsemen, shepherds, and bird-catchers recognize the inclinations of character from the appearance of animals and make their choices based on them, so too from the exterior signs of plants, man can be informed of their interior powers.

Relying on these reasons, I began to ask myself whether these established gifts corresponded to fixed signs. If any powers were unknown to us, I sought them out from the books of Physicians, which they themselves had written after learning them by chance. Thus, by long comparison, I perceived that a marvelous correspondence and consequence existed in this matter. Thus, afterward, for the sake of confirming the truth, if I happened upon herbs that were still uncertain...