A decorative headpiece in red ink features a symmetrical knotwork and floral motif with scrollwork. At the bottom left, there is a red circular library stamp with a crown in the center and the text "Royal Library" original Latin: "BIBLIOTHECA REGIA".

Porphyry on the Life of Plotinus and the

Arrangement of His Books.

Plotinus, the philosopher of our time, seemed like a man who was ashamed of being in a body. Because of this disposition, he could not bear to talk about his ancestry, his parents, or his fatherland. He so disdained the idea of sitting for a painter or a sculptor that he even said to Amelius—who was pleading for permission to have a portrait made of him—"Is it not enough to carry this image original: "eidolon" which nature has placed around us, without also consenting to leave behind an image of an image, as if it were something truly worth looking at?" Consequently, because he refused and always denied this request, Amelius—who had a friend named Carterius, the best painter of that time—arranged for him to attend the lectures. Anyone who wished was allowed to attend these sessions. By observing him closely through repeated attention, Carterius accustomed himself to capturing the visual impressions. In this way, by drawing from what was stored in his memory, he was able to produce a likeness. Thus, with the cooperation of Amelius in refining the resemblance, the talent of Carterius provided us with a portrait of Plotinus that was most like him. Concerning Plotinus He was often troubled by a stomach ailment. However, he would not endure the use of clysters an early medical term for an enema, saying that it was not fitting for an elderly man to submit to such treatments. Nor would he submit to taking theriac antidotes a famous "universal" herbal medicine often containing opium and many other ingredients; he said he did not even approve of taking medicines derived from the bodies of tame animals. Abstaining from the bath, he used daily massages? at home. When the plague broke out, it happened that the men who massaged him died. As a result of the loss of this treatment, he was gradually seized by a cynanche a severe, suffocating throat infection or inflammation. While I was present, no such symptom was yet apparent; but after I had sailed away to Syracuse, the condition returned, as he said, when he went to...