PIETRO

Pomponazzi of Mantu-

a, to the most excellent physician

and doctor of Mantua,

his godfather and friend,

an epistle.

Ornamental woodcut initial S within a square frame. The background of the letter depicts a scene with two figures, likely a seated scholar or medical figure and a standing person, set within an architectural or interior space.

You informed me through your letters that, when you had undertaken the medical care of two boys—one of whom was suffering from a disease resembling erysipelas original: "erysipilate"; a bacterial skin infection characterized by a bright red, painful rash., and the other had fallen into a fire—someone arrived who cured these boys of their affliction using only words and incantations original: "carminibus"; literally "songs" or "verses," here referring to spoken charms or spells used in folk healing., and with no other medical assistance. You add that there was another person whom I know of, in whom a piece of iron was embedded that could be extracted by no medical art; yet, it was pulled out by that same man using the same method. You then add a fourth miracle: an instru-