TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND CHRISTIAN

PRINCE AND LORD, LORD JOACHIM, ELECTOR OF THE HOLY

ROMAN EMPIRE, MARGRAVE OF BRANDEN-

burg, Duke of Stettin, Pomerania, the Cassubians, and the Slavs, Burg-

rave of Nuremberg, and Prince of Rügen, his

most clement Lord, LEONHART

Fuchs, physician, sends many greetings.

---

The study of herbs has always garnered much admiration and praise for the physician.

A decorative woodcut initial "Q" containing a portrait of a bearded man in scholarly attire, possibly Leonhart Fuchs, set against a dark background within a square floral frame.

ALTHOUGH all of medicine has been considered glorious and divine in every age, most illustrious and noble PRINCE, nevertheless, in this its highest splendor, that part which investigates and explores the natures of plants has always obtained more praise, admiration, and weight: partly because it is the most ancient (and antiquity has always held the greatest authority and veneration among all), and partly because the knowledge of it is pleasant, useful, and necessary.

The divine origin of plants.

For while almost all other arts were discovered as soon as man was created by God the Best and Greatest, and were thereafter increased by the industry of many, herbs alone—by God’s command—burst forth from the hidden places of the earth immediately after the elements were established, before any man yet existed, along with their divine powers. On this account, the invention of nothing else, nor of any art, is more truly assigned to God than medicine and the study of plants. But if anyone should dare to shamelessly object to what we have asserted, we shall set against him Moses, the oldest of all who have written—

Moses, the oldest writer of all.

as a witness, since you will find no other writer before him, neither among the Chaldeans, nor the Egyptians, nor the Phoenicians, nor the Greeks (who are nonetheless ancient nations); he openly affirms in his Genesis what we have said. Nor is there any reason for anyone to insolently and insultingly reject or despise his testimony, as he is one whom not only our own people, but also all secular writers, have never failed to admire and extol with the highest praises; antiquity itself makes him venerable and truthful. For indeed, according to Cicero's testimony, antiquity comes closest to the gods:

The authority of antiquity.

and therefore, the closer it is to its origin and divine progeny, the better it retains those things which are true. Hence, it is not without reason that all men who have ever lived have consistently asserted that faith should be given to venerable antiquity. Furthermore, not only Moses, but also all the poets and historians who followed him, educated in Egyptian learning, attributed the origin and discovery of herbs to the gods. For the most ancient of the Greek poets, Homer and Hesiod (for the

Homer and Hesiod, the oldest Greek writers.

Greeks have nothing they can cite before them) openly testify that the origin of plants is divine. Hesiod, indeed, relates that men are ignorant of how much benefit is hidden in Mallow and Asphodel. Hesiod suggests in "Works and Days" that the simple life—represented by eating mallow and asphodel—is a lost divine wisdom. For with these words, he hints rather obscurely that the powers of herbs are hidden in their innermost marrow and are unknown to men, perceived only by the gods themselves, who are their discoverers. Homer, truly, refers the discovery of the most praised herb Moly—which is wonderfully effective against the sorceries of Circe—to Mercury, the messenger of the gods, writing that it is difficult for men to find, but not so for the gods. Moreover, in his Theriaca, Nicander recorded that Panaces original: "Panaces," meaning "all-healing," from which we get the word panacea., which by its very name promises remedies for all diseases, was discovered by the gods themselves, and was even named Chironian, Asclepian, and Herculean after them. What the Greek poets asserted piece by piece and concerning almost every individual kind, Ovid—whom it is enough to bring forward now as a single witness for many—wished to affirm universally about all plants among the Latins, while he imagines Apollo speaking of himself in this way, saying:

Medicine is my discovery, and I am called
The healer throughout the world; the power of herbs is subject to us.
original: "Inuentum medicina meum est, opifexq́; per orbem / Dicor, & herbarum ſubiecta potentia nobis." From Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I.

Therefore, I think it is now clear to everyone that, if we look at antiquity and divine origin, nothing in medicine is more laudable, more splendid, or more honorable than the study of herbs. Because