¶ The life of Avicenna, Prince of Corduba, recounted by Francesco Calphurnio of Padua, which has hitherto been hidden, has now come to light.

A large decorative woodcut initial 'A' at the beginning of the text. It depicts a scholar-like figure seated in a landscape with hills and trees.

Avicenna, Prince of Corduba, nurtured by his own times, surpassed in the glory of letters all the physicians that the world possessed. For that man, as soon as he was taken from his mother's breast, always pursued the true art of healthy medicine. But who would deny that along with his virtues, he possessed clemency and liberality as companions in his dealings, and was a healthy refuge for those languishing in disease? For the history of the ancients relates that he caused a dwelling to be constructed in the city of Corduba at his own expense, where he received all who were distressed by disease in a friendly manner, and once received, he cured them with vigilant care. There was no one who did not experience both his wealth and his help, especially those who begged him for assistance; he never left anyone destitute, and he never allowed anyone to suffer from hunger. There is truly nothing, if you take away the swords, by which one might more sublimely exalt his Caesar than this Prince of Corduba, for liberality has always been a faithful companion to both. But because it is not clear to many how long or in what time he lived, I decided to extract and clarify this from ancient annals. For he died before his ripe years, having completed only his forty-eighth year when he was overtaken by a fatal death and perished. He had Averroes, a philosopher and physician as his contemporary, who always struggled against the glory of him and other physicians with the darts of a jealous and barking tongue. He also had the aforementioned Algazel and Alfarabi, illustrious physicians, whom that spiteful Averroes strove to provoke against Avicenna. Through which it happened that he alone, like a tyrant, was tormented by those things of which Horace says: "The jealous Sicilian tyrants found no greater torture." Furthermore, I do not know by what arguments some dreamers insist that there are mutual letters between Augustine and Avicenna, asserting this in erroneous writings. If these were true, Augustine would have bypassed nature in the days after his own law. Indeed, there is no mortal of a balanced mind who, if he has read the letters of Augustine, would not easily persuade himself that this is fabulous, since no letter from Augustine to the Prince can be found. When the majesty of the Roman Empire was declining and subsiding, and the Arabs were occupying Spain, he flourished among physicians like a hyacinth among nettles; and although he was abundantly rich in the gifts of both mind and body, he always gave to mortals the wealth of medicine, wrapped in five scrolls, tested to the file and to the rule, and clarified by the glory of his Arabic language, which remains for us as faithful witnesses.

¶ Others report that this Arab was a Prince of Abola, who, after the funeral of his elevated father, gave himself entirely to be nourished by the disciplines. Among these, he withered away from such frequent vigils and constant labor, so that upon reaching his tenth year, he read through the complex work of the Alcoran of the Mahometan law, and committed the read text to a lively memory. But when he grew in age and reason, enticed by the sweetness of the medical art, he grew pale over the volumes of Hippocrates and Galen until his eighteenth year, at which time, perhaps to the envy of his contemporary learned men, he sought an illustrious trophy; and although fortune later denied him aid in his homeland, he aided the languishing in foreign regions. And lest he succumb to the mire of sluggish idleness, he impelled many young men dedicated to their studies toward the Apollonian arts, and presented them with various volumes that he had heard in medicine. But, alas, when he had spent the better hours of his life in study, behold, the long hope of living deceives us: he died from a grave illness which is called "colic" by our people. But because the opinion of the diverse writers of Avicenna's death is divided, I dare not assert anything from my own side for that reason; however, rejecting the opinions of many, I easily persuade myself that I am not departing from the truth if I speak of the death of Avicenna with Lord Symphorien Champier of Lyon. For he, as Champier is the author, when he had drawn Averroes the physician into jealousy and the fortune of the glory of letters, after some days, lest he be exiled from the office of the jealous, he killed him with a deadly poison.

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