TO THOSE

DEVOTED

TO HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE.

HE who first brought forth a thought interprets and explains its entire meaning most effectively; for that person knows thoroughly what it is and what it signifies. We judge that Giovanni Marinelli has attended to this with sufficient diligence, for in explaining the Aphorisms he has followed Hippocrates himself as interpreter and guide. You will recognize that his interpretation differs significantly from Galen’s explanation, although those who are followers of Galen—rather than you, who are followers of Hippocrates—will say that this new interpreter did not perceive the meaning of Hippocrates, and that he has brought forth certain books which Hippocrates himself never published, but rather his disciples. To these you shall respond that they should not forget that it is the nature of any man to err, but that of no one, unless he is a fool, to persist in error. Let them not slander him in the shadows, but rather, in person or by letter, make known to him who practices medicine in Venice what is wrong, for he will most willingly correct errors and will be grateful. But those books attributed to Hippocrates, which they affirm are unworthy, he deems should never be deleted, for he believes that his disciples, who received these teachings from his own lips, were more abundant in the precepts and institutions of Hippocrates than those who lived a thousand years later, who now condemn what they plainly accept as the book of Hippocrates.