TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE, LORD JOACHIM

The utility of herbal medicine.

If you truly weigh in your mind the magnitude of the utility that this study brings to mankind, I do not see what could be more excellent. For by no other means do we better preserve, protect, and sustain good bodily health than by the aid of plants of every kind. Moreover, nothing exists that is better, more excellent, or more desirable than good health, since without it neither power, nor riches, nor any other pleasant things can be of use. As our Hippocrates The famous Greek physician of antiquity, often called the "Father of Medicine." so brilliantly said: “There is no benefit in wealth, nor in the body, nor in anything else, without health.” original: "οὐδὲν ὄφελός ἐστιν οὔτε χρημάτων, οὔτε σώματος, οὔτε τ͂ ἄλλῶ οὐδενὸς, ἄτερ τῆς ὑγιείης." Nor do we only protect our present health by the benefit of herbs, but we also correct, mend, and restore it when it is weakened and shattered. For just as bees collect material from flowers from which they fashion honey, so do we, from the immense variety of those same plants,

The necessity of herbal medicine.

pluck remedies against diseases. Furthermore, since there are almost innumerable diseases that lay snares for us from the front, back, and sides, I think it will be obscure to no one—but rather agreed upon by all—that an exquisite knowledge of plants is also highly necessary. For without their divine

The pleasure of the knowledge of plants.

powers, it will not be possible for us to repel diseases. There is no reason for me to explain at length how much joy and delight the knowledge of plants holds, since there is no one who does not know that nothing in this life is more pleasant or delightful than to wander through woods, mountains, and fields, crowned and adorned with various and most elegant flowers and herbs, and to gaze upon them with intent eyes. That pleasure and joy is increased not a little if the knowledge of their properties and powers is added. For the sweetness and delight in knowing them is no less than in looking at them. Therefore, since those ancients noticed that the origin of plants was divine, and that in such great fragility of human life they not only provided immense use and fruit but were also highly necessary, they began not only to think honorably of this part of medicine, but they also considered that there was nothing in nature more worthy of admiration, nothing more beautiful to investigate and scrutinize, and nothing more pleasant to know. Accordingly, they devoted themselves entirely, in both mind and body, to the investigation and tracking of them. And in this study of seeking out plants, not only common men of lowly sort were held, but also those from every class of men outstanding in power, wealth, wisdom, and learning. For the more famous they were for nobility of birth, and more excellent in wisdom and learning—and thus able to judge this part of medicine more purely—the more their minds were excited and inflamed to follow this

Kings of old were marvelously occupied with the study of scrutinizing plants.

study. Hence it is that many Kings, excelling in power and wisdom, meanwhile neglecting the honor of royal majesty, did not at all mind going with their whole retinue of royal dignity through vast solitudes of many regions, wandering over pathless mountain ridges, surveying inaccessible lakes, searching the hidden fibers of the earth, and following the gaping caves of valleys. They did this not so much because the immense joy and pleasure invited them (which they then enjoyed when they visited various places adorned with various flowers and herbs), but rather a certain passion drove them to deserve the best of the human race and all posterity, and to obtain an immortal name. Therefore, they fought no less sharply and strenuously for the plants each one found to be named after them than for empire or life itself, than which nothing is dearer; many names of plants testify to this truth. For the herb Polemonia Likely Polemonium caeruleum, commonly known as Jacob's Ladder. was called Philetaeria for no other reason, as Pliny witnesses, than on account of the contest

Gentius, King of the Illyrians.

between kings for its discovery. Does not Gentiana itself, which was given a name from its discoverer Gentius, King of the Illyrians, sufficiently show how studious he was of herbs? Gentian is still used today in herbal bitters and medicine. Inasmuch as even in the midst of arms he did not loathe to devote effort to the investigation of them and to explore the powers of Gentiana, and for no other reason than that by this means he might gain for himself a perpetual and never-failing

Lysimachus, King of the Macedonians.

memory. Furthermore, the greatness of his mind and the glory of his strength did not make Lysimachus, King of the Macedonians, as famous as the herb Lysimachia, Commonly known as Loosestrife. which retains his name to this very day.

Mithridates, King of Pontus.

Mithridates indeed, the greatest king of Pontus and the Parthians, who spoke no fewer than twenty-two languages...