TO THE MOST INVINCIBLE,

AND MOST POWERFUL

EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS

TO THE MOST SERENE AND ILLUSTRIOUS

TO FERDINAND AND CHARLES,

A decorative initial letter 'H' contains a woodcut illustration of a centaur, likely Chiron, standing in a natural landscape with trees and holding a leafy branch.
The divine origin of Herbal Medicine.

HERBAL MEDICINE (to begin my discourse with it), Most Invincible Emperor and Most Serene Princes, both Pliny and most authors of ancient histories testify was first discovered in ancient times by that renowned Centaur, Chiron In Greek mythology, Chiron was a centaur known for his exceptional wisdom and knowledge of medicine, often serving as a tutor to heroes like Achilles., the son of Saturn by Phillyra. Others, however, claim it was found by Apollo, and still others by his son Aesculapius The god of medicine and healing., thinking that an excellence of such great power could be devised and found by no one except the immortal Gods. For they do not think it possible that a human could, by himself, investigate and understand the hidden natures and powers of plants unless he had first been taught these gifts by the greatest Craftsman of all. For (as Pliny says), if anyone believes that a man could devise this, he understands the divine power of the Gods ungratefully original: "ingrate Deorum numen intelligit". Yet there are no lack of most esteemed authors who, having rejected the fictions of the Poets and others who write fabulously in their histories about the inventors of Herbal Medicine, firmly believe—supported by both the testimonies of authors and the most effective reasons—that God, the Best and Greatest Creator of all, showed the powers of plants and all other things which the earth produces and nourishes to Adam, the first progenitor of the human race. They believe He infused the knowledge of them into him as soon as He breathed the light of life into him, after he had been formed from the mud of the earth. Plants established for the use of men. Moreover, that the admirable secrets of Medicine, which were created for the use of the human race not only in herbs and trees but in all things held within the whole world, is most clearly testified in the sacred scriptures by that moral and truly divine philosopher Jesus Sirach Mattioli refers to the Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 38:4, a common justification for the medical arts in the Renaissance.: for he writes that Medicine was created by the Highest God from the earth, which a wise man ought not to abhor. That God indeed infused the knowledge of all things into Adam from the beginning can easily be conjectured by anyone from the Mosaic records in the first book of Genesis. For when God himself gave power to our first parents so that they might rule over the birds of the Heaven, the fish of the sea, and the other living creatures of the earth, He said: "Behold, I hand over to you all the herbs which are fruitful on every soil of the earth, and all the trees endowed with fruitful offspring and bearing seed, which you may use for nourishment." But to all the beasts of the earth, and the other birds, and whatever things moved by a vital spirit are animated, [I give] every green-