A large rectangular woodcut illustration depicts a coastal landscape. In the foreground, figures are engaged in activities near the water; one appears to be reclining, while others stand nearby. In the background, a city with classical architecture sits at the foot of a mountain range. A large tree frames the left side of the scene.

IVL. MARTIANI ROTAE

Poems on the five Books of Avicenna.

The confused volumes of the Apollonian art at last
Have held the desired measure. The Babylonian hero Avicenna, often referred to by his Eastern origin.
Used to walking the footpaths through the pleasant meadows of the Lyceum,
Skilfully reduced such a mass into members.
And he alone could do what the ancients could not:
To include the Pergamean Referring to Galen, who was from Pergamon. mass in his writings in order,
And to join the precepts of the old Coan Referring to Hippocrates, from the island of Cos. to his own subjects:
Thence to employ all other lesser fathers
Argolic Greek., and those whom the first rays of the rising sun
Behold, created from the race of Arabs:
And also from Latium, throughout the Roman towns, if anyone
Brought aid in language to mortal sick men.
Whatever the experienced medicine had gathered scattered
Throughout the whole world, you will find it thus stored by art,
So that you may bring forth each thing with the least labor.
And you may be able to help diseases quickly once presented,
Which will not be able to happen to you in any other book,
Even if you read a thousand volumes extended on pages.

First Book.

The First will narrate all things common to physicians,
Subject, diseases, causes, indications, care.
And this book will have twice two parts.
The first relates what the beginnings of a healthy man are.
The Second recounts diseases, and causes, and signs.
The Third preserves, and at the same time keeps the healthy safe.
The Fourth prepares to recall the sick to their former life.

Second Book.

Behold the little garden for you, which if you cultivate, thence you can
Both preserve health and restore it to dear friends.
Each area holds its seed in a wonderful order,
Whence you may suddenly take a hundred medicines,
And apply medical hands. What each thing is,
What it does, what members it seeks, for the page shows,
A page which is once imbued with various color.
Moreover, the second teaches how to learn the unknown by certain signs,
And to prepare those which were known.

Third Book.

This third book contains the part that troubles each disease,
Teaching the causes, indications, and cures.
It doubles, and there are eleven volumes, the plagues:

Which individual monostichs written below mark for the eager.
The First part presumes to say what strengthens the brain.
The Second part frees the nerves from cruel diseases.
The Third solves the various affections of the eyes.
The Fourth relieves whatever detains the languishing ears.
The Fifth hastens to help the suffering nose.
The Sixth removes the weariness of the tired tongue.
The Seventh meditates help for weary teeth.
The Eighth restores beauty to the gums and lips.
The Ninth guards the besieged throat from perils.
The Tenth part removes internal ills of the chest.
The Eleventh ministers strength for the service of the heart.
The Twelfth drives away harmful things from dear nipples.
The third after the tenth stops things harming the stomach.
The twice-seventh restores usual strength to the liver.
And hence the third-fifth renews the vigor of the gallbladder and spleen.
The sixth above the tenth holds back things disturbing the belly.
If you go past the Tenth, the seventh will cure the seat.
The third-repeated sixth part puts to flight the pains of the kidneys.
The ninth following the tenth takes away the torment of the bladder.
The Twentieth leads the slow young into offspring.
The Penultimate destroys the cases of the female womb.
The Last relieves the broken and the aching limbs.

Fourth Book.

The Fourth, which you now read best, has seven parts,
In which is whatever presses the whole man from everywhere.
For the First separates fevers within a certain limit.
The Second part narrates what sudden crises warn.
The Third unfolds the known abscesses of the body.
The Fourth applies medicines to all wounds.
The Fifth soon restores limbs removed from their place.
The Sixth cures poisonous bites and cups.
The Seventh speaks of the various ornaments of the limbs.

Fifth Book.

The last teaches the experienced pharmacist to compose
All things which are narrated in the second book.
For, since physicians could not always overcome difficult
Diseases with simples, they learned to join many things
By their own ingenuity, and having obtained their wishes,
They doubled the honor of the skill-bearing art,
And the beauty of the antidote proceeded from long use.