Dedicatory Letter

...it tames the wildness of all animals when tied to the neck or hung from a yoke. Appian of Alexandria writes that when the Parthians were fleeing from Mark Antony and were pressed by hunger, they came upon a certain herb. Those who ate it could remember or understand nothing except to continuously dig up stones, as if they were performing some great labor; they raged thus until, finally vomiting bile, they died. A branch of the Third Buckthorn original: "Rhamni tertij"; Dioscorides identifies several types of Rhamnus, according to Dioscorides, drives away all sorcery when placed upon doors or windows. An entire Squill a bulbous plant of the lily family hung on the threshold of a gateway wards off the harm of evil medicines. The roots of Dock original: "Lapathi", and even those of Plantain, when tied around the neck (according to the same author), heal scrofula and tumors original: "chœradas & strumas"; these refer to swellings of the lymph nodes. Little worms found in the autumn inside the prickly heads of the Teasel original: "Dipsaci", tied around the neck in a small pouch or hung from the left arm, restore to health those afflicted with quartan fever a form of malaria where fever recurs every fourth day. By carrying the Distaff Thistle original: "Atractylis" herb, the sting of scorpions is numbed for as long as the victim carries it; however, Dioscorides writes that as soon as it is set down, the pain breaks out anew. Furthermore, he recorded for posterity that those who carry the root of the Greek Valerian original: "Polemoniæ" will not be stung by a scorpion, or if by some stroke of luck someone is stung, they will suffer no distress.

The miraculous Baaras plant.

The Baaras root grows in Judea, named after the place where it is found (as Flavius Josephus writes in his book The Jewish War); in color it mimics a flame, and toward evening it glows like a flashing beam of light. For those approaching it and wishing to pluck it, the task is not easy, for it shrinks away until female urine or menstrual blood is poured over it. Even then, if anyone touches it, certain death follows, unless they happen to carry the root itself hanging from their hand. Therefore, they dig all around the root, and while it is not yet fully extracted, they tie a dog to it. The dog, wishing to follow its master as he walks away, pulls the root out and dies immediately, as if in place of the person who was to take it; after this, there is no fear for those who handle it. It is worth capturing at such great risk for one particular power: if it is brought near those who are oppressed by evil spirits original: "cacodæmonibus", they immediately enjoy freedom.

A trick suitable for parasites.

Moreover, I possess a root found by Francesco Calceolario of Verona, in which a pearl original: "unio" is soaked overnight. If the resulting wine is then drunk through a linen cloth by someone—no matter how hungry they may be—that person will be unable to eat or even taste the smallest bit unless they swallow a spoonful of vinegar. This is surely a joke to be laughed at, but the thing itself should not be entrusted to everyone. A root is dug up among the West Indians with leaves like the Elder tree original: "Sambuci", which reaches the thickness of a human thigh; its juice, if drunk, is lethal. But the rest of the pressed root, ground into flour, makes a bread that is excellent and most healthy for nutrition This is likely the Cassava or Manioc plant, which is toxic unless processed. To these accounts, one might also add what people often marvel at in the spectacles of traveling performers.

A joke of certain traveling performers.

Into wine they mix the powder of a certain root, the taste of which causes the throat to constrict. When they wish to play a trick original: "fucum facere" on someone, they command him to dip a finger into that wine as if to pre-taste it; then, as soon as the wine-moistened finger is put into the mouth, the man unwillingly bites down on it with pain and shouting. Meanwhile, as if consoling the grieving man with flatteries, the performer smears the temples and the arteries of the wrist with some other medicine, then throws a coin on the ground and urges him to pick it up. There, leaning forward, the man first finds himself unable to rise; soon, driven mad by the power of the ointment, he falls down. Immediately, in the manner of one who fears he is drowning in water, he "swims" and cries out that he is being overwhelmed by waves. Then the performer lifts him up. The man, as if seeking to avenge the injury, first reproaches the trickery with a sidelong and grim glare, and then seems to attack the man. Finally, he pursues the fleeing performer until, the poison of the smeared medicine having been wiped away at last, he recovers his spirit and is restored to his mind. Once he has come to himself, like a shipwrecked survivor who has escaped the sea, he is seen wringing his hair and clothes as if they were sails, wiping his arms, and blowing his nose. These are not fables. For there is no lack of testimony from many who saw this, and who, suspecting an imposture, ordered it to be done to their own servants and those of their friends (as happened this year in Prague). Theophrastus mentions an herb which, when swallowed, grants the power of copulating seventy times. Furthermore, in a certain province of the West Indies toward Darien in modern-day Panama, there is a tree resembling the appearance of a Pear tree,