Dedication :

...or left behind any record for the memory of posterity concerning their history and powers. Many are the authors who write that the Gentian herb, commended everywhere by writers, was discovered by Gentius, King of the Illyrians, and that it borrowed its name from him; indeed, they have granted him fame and immortality for it. Similarly, Lysimachus, King of Macedonia, discovered Lysimachia original: "Lysimachiam"; likely Yellow Loosestrife (as Pliny is the authority) and named it after himself, becoming celebrated with perpetual praise because of this. Likewise, Scordium Water Germander commends Mithridates, King of Pontus, to eternal renown.

Furthermore, the herb Clymenos grants eternal fame to King Clymenus, its discoverer; Euphorbium to Juba of the Mauritanians; Telephium to Telephus, King of Mysia; and Echium and Anchusa to Alcibiades, the Athenian leader. Hence also shine Attalus of Pergamum and Euax, King of the Arabs. Indeed, the latter wrote much to the Emperor Nero concerning the powers of simple medicines In historical medicine, a "simple" is a medicinal plant or substance used on its own, rather than as part of a complex compound.; while the former spent a great deal of effort to obtain authentic plants while he was preparing many antidotes against poisons and the strikes of venom-spitting animals. To these are added Archelaus of Cappadocia, Massinissa of Numidia, and Agamemnon, King of the Argives, whose names can never be extinguished by any passage of time because of the care and diligence they applied in identifying and recording plants. I shall pass over Philometor, Hieron, and several other kings of great name—lest I seem to pursue the matter more wordily than is necessary—who themselves won immortal glory from this, because they stood out as students of herbal matters and thereby deserved great credit from posterity.

Monuments of illustrious Romans.

Furthermore, in the course of time, this branch of knowledge migrated even to the Romans, among whom Marcus Cato, the master of all good arts, was the first—and for a long time the only one—to touch upon this discipline, not even omitting the medicine of oxen. After him, one of the illustrious men, namely Caius Valgius, famous for his erudition, attempted to write more on the subject of plants, though in an unfinished volume dedicated to the divine Augustus. But before that, Pompeius Lenaeus, a freedman of Pompey the Great, had been the only one among the Latins to compose volumes on plants, having been instructed from the treasury of Mithridates. For when that King, in the rest of his greatness of mind, was peculiarly curious about medical matter, seeking out details from his subjects (who constituted a large part of the world), he left in his secret archives a chest of these commentaries, specimens, and their effects. When Pompey had defeated and conquered him, possessing all the royal spoils, he ordered Lenaeus, a man most learned in the grammatical art, to translate them into the Latin language; and thus he benefited life no less than that victory benefited the Republic.

Praise of Pliny.

Following these a long time later, Pliny, writing his Natural History, dealt more extensively with plants and herbs in several continuous books; to him we ought to acknowledge our debt for all those things written by others before him. Since their writings have long since been lost, we are unable to gain any benefit from them, except only for those things that were translated by the same Pliny into his own monuments of literature.

The diligence of Antonius Castor in cultivating plants.

One must also contemplate the knowledge of Antonius Castor, who held the highest authority in this discipline before that time, by visiting his little botanical garden original: "uiridariolo" in which he nourished a great many plants. He lived past his hundredth year, experiencing no bodily ailment, and was not even shaken in memory or vigor by his age—antiquity will be found to have wondered at nothing more.

Latin Poets who wrote about plants.

There were also some among the Latins who made mention of this discipline: the poets, namely Virgil, Ovid, and Macer, since these sang in their poems many things about plants worthy of note and destined never to perish.

Heroines dedicated to the study of plants.

Not only poets but also historians record that women also sought after the glory of herbs and achieved it, as they expended much care and study in investigating their powers. For this reason, the poets mythologize that Circe (from whom the herb Circea Enchanter's Nightshade is named) was the daughter of the Sun; but in truth, she attained such exquisite knowledge of herbs that she was held to be divine rather than human in those ages, not without reason, because of her miraculous deeds. Such also was Medea, who had so much knowledge of herbs that when she had delayed old age for many with medicines composed from them, the poets feigned that Aeson, who was affected by extreme old age, was restored to youth by her. Furthermore, Helen bestowed her own name upon the herb Helenium Elecampane, which she first sowed (as some would have it), and therefore she lives on even now as a most renowned figure in it. Artemisia, indeed, the wife of Mausolus, King of Caria, a woman otherwise of most distinguished...