Letter

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they have. But as to why more plants are not known (says Pliny), the reason is that they are found in the wild, and those ignorant of letters are the ones who experience them, as they are the ones who live among them. Indeed, many discovered plants lack names. For we know of a nameless plant which, when buried in the corners of a cornfield, ensures that no bird enters. A most shameful cause of this rarity of knowledge is that even those who do know will not demonstrate it, as if what they have passed on to others would then be lost to themselves. Thus, they certainly hide what little else they have learned, envying others and teaching no one, all to maintain their own authority in science; the habits of some are so far removed from thinking up new things or helping human life. For a long time now, the greatest work of such minds has been to ensure that the noble deeds of the ancients perish within each of them. But should we wish to hide and suppress the things we have worked on—attained through the greatest labors of both the ancients and ourselves—and thus defraud life of the goods of others? Not in the least; rather, we have determined that life, both present and future, should be aided not only by the discoveries of others but also by our own prepared remedies. In this, we follow the practice of many of the most famous and learned men of our age, in whose catalog the foremost are Hermolaus Barbarus, Nicolaus Leonicenus, Ioannes Manardus, Ioannes Ruellius, Marcellus Vergilius, Leonhart Fuchs original: "Leonardus Fuchsius" (a physician of bright erudition among the Germans), Antonius Musa Brasavolus, Iacobus Sylvius, Aloyſius Mundella, and others. These men, observing that Materia Medica The study of the origins and properties of medicinal substances—which was celebrated in every previous century—lay obsolete, unexamined, and uncultivated through the carelesness and sloth of the physicians who preceded us (to the point that very few physicians could be found who knew almost any plants other than garden vegetables used for food), took pity on the human race and applied strenuous effort so that, having dispelled the fog of the previous century, they might rescue medical knowledge from the darkness and restore it to its pristine light. I have imitated these men with as much study and industry as I could, since I had noticed for many years in all the pharmacies of Italy—both by the pharmacists original: "Pharmacopœis" themselves and especially by physicians ignorant of this faculty—how many errors, and those grave and detestable ones, were being committed to the peril of human life, and often to its destruction. To ensure their errors might be removed, and taking into account our pharmacists (few of whom know enough Latin), I undertook to translate Dioscorides of Anazarbus A 1st-century Greek physician and botanist whose work remained the standard medical text for 1,500 years.—both a Greek and a most ancient writer, and easily the Prince of the history of simple medicines and their powers—into the Italian language, and to illustrate him with Italian commentaries as best I could. To these I have brought whatever talent, labor, care, and judgment I could achieve, so that I might produce what I consider to be the legitimate plants, and likewise offer my opinion on other simple medicines.

The negligence of physicians of the previous age.

In this matter, we were forced not only to strike down the errors found everywhere among the pharmacists and physicians of the previous age, who seem to have neglected this part of medicine, but also to frequently refute the opinions of more recent authors, who nevertheless treated this subject most diligently. It is certainly no wonder that men who were otherwise most learned and worthy of the highest praise stumbled and fell, either wavering in such a critical matter or sometimes being blinded by human obscurity—which, we do not doubt, has also happened to us occasionally in this great work. Furthermore, I have embraced the history of plants and animals as broadly as the subject seemed to require. In recounting their powers, I have provided those for each plant from Galen Claudius Galenus, a prominent Greek physician whose theories dominated Western medical science for centuries. at the end, and I was almost always content with him, except when he himself omitted something. Moreover, since there are several kinds of plants, spices, and other simple medicines that have frequent use in medicine—discovered partly by the Moors original: "Mauritanis"; referring to Arabic medical authorities like Avicenna and Rhazes and partly by others who flourished throughout various ages, of which Dioscorides, Galen, and other ancient Greek authors make no mention in any extant work—we have inserted all of those into our commentaries and described their history and powers with as much diligence as we could. Once I had brought this work to its conclusion original: "ad umbilicum perduxissem"; literally 'brought to the navel,' a Roman idiom for finishing a scroll or book, I published it at the urging of friends, primarily with the intention that by my industry I might be of some use to the lives of men, and...