Friendly Missive of an Adept of Hermetic Science and Art

ean languages / which I previously
understood well / have become corrupted / and I
have / alongside the Oriental
and Arabic ones / scarcely retained my native
High German for even
moderate use. In
Fez / a royal and very
charming city in Barbary The "Barbary Coast" of North Africa, modern-day Morocco. / I lived
for 6 years / and served great
lords with the art of medicine original: Artzney-Kunst; referring to internal medicine or "physic." and
surgery original: Wund-Heyl-Kunst, literally "the art of healing wounds." In this era, surgery was often a separate trade from medicine. / (in which
the latter the Africans and Asians
are very unskilled) and
this work / because my
knowledge or fortune therein was
greater / than that of the inhabitants / brought
me considerable wealth and incredible
favor from the nobility.
Natural science shielded
my Christianity at that time /
and obtained more freedom
for me / than is granted to a native
by the government.