The Epistle to the Earl of Bedford

[scan 1] THE SECRETES OF THE REVERENDE MAISTER ALEXIS OF PIEMOVNT.

Containyng excellente remedies against diuers diseases, woundes, and other accidents, with the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions and meltynges. A worke well approued, verye profytable and necessary for euery man.

Translated out of Frenche into English, by Wyllyam Warde.

Imprynted at London by Iohn Kingstone for Nicolas Inglande, dwelinge in Poules churchyarde.

ANNO. 1558. Me•ss. Nouemb.

[Not in the TCP transcription, whose copy lacks these pages: scan 2, scan 3]

[scan 4] health. In all these thinges are certaine secrete vertues, whiche be manifeste signes of goddes loue and fauoure towardes man: for he created them to thintent that men should vse them, glorifie him, and geue him thankes for them. And because the vse and knowledge of them, and their vertues, is so expedient for al creatures, God of his mere goodnes, hath not onely geuen vnto the diligent searchers therof, the gifte of perfitte vsage, and vnderstandinge of their operation in this time of Christianitie: but also vnto infideles before Christ, beynge ignoraunt from whence that gyfte came: who, notwithstanding their ignoraunce, did so reuerence the wonderful vertues of thinges created in the worlde, that they thought that eche of those thinges had had in it selfe a certaine diuine power, or els that there was of euery thinge a seueral god or creatour. Now, if they gaue suche honoure vnto thinges created, not knowinge the creatoure, what woulde they haue doen, if they had knowen and confessed God to haue bene the onely maker of the worlde, of man, and of all thinges therin, of nothinge? Trulye they woulde not haue done as some curious Christians amonge vs nowe a dayes do, whiche (as your honour well vnderstandeth) moste impudentlye despise all maner of medecines, and ignorauntly dispute against the vertues and operation of herbes, and trees, sayinge: [scan 5] that if the sicke man be appointed of God to dye, all the medecines in the worlde can not saue his life. Whervnto it may easely be aunswered, that euery man that is vexed with a disease, is not appointed of God to die of the same: but the infirmitie is sent him as a punishment for his offences, and yet hath God created thinges to geue him ease and remedy for his disease, which no Christē man ought to contempne or despise: for he that despiseth the worke, seemeth to contempne the workeman. And agayne, because that the appointment and determination of God, concerning the life and death of man, is so secrete, and so farre beyonde the capacitie of mans reason, and vnderstandinge, and that we know not when God hath prefixed the terme of our life, we vse in our infirmities and weaknes, those remedies that God hath created to be receaued at their handes, to whome he hath geuen the knowledge howe to minister theim vnto vs. All these thinges are abundantly ynough knowen vnto your honour, with a great many more reasons then I am able to alledge, and therfore I do but bring owles to Athens in declaringe this vnto you. But thus much I may well saye, that moost madde are they, and voyde of all reason & Christianitie, that wyle set so light by the workes of God: yea, they are vnprofitable members of a common welth, not worthy to bear the name of [scan 6] Christians: for by their fonde and false perswasions to the ignoraunte and simple ones in their diseases, against the receiuing of any medicines, many times it chaūceth, that thei folowynge their foolishe aduise in neglectyng Phisick, thei be cast away and perishe, whiche otherwise might haue bene saued. Me thinketh this should be sufficient to perswade thē to embrace good and holesome remedies: thei see daylie that herbes, oinctmentes, plaisters made of thinges growing on the earth, and suche like, by their vertues, do cure and heale externall and outwarde woundes, sores, cuttes, swellinges, and other infirmities of the body, and yet they will not beleue that suche vertues can heale the internall and inwarde diseases. Vtterly ignoraunte be thei, that so imagine with them selues, for thei that despise Phisick, despise a heauenly science. But what be thei that thus contempne it? Forsoth ignoraunt & vnlearned men, that barke at, and backbite theim that take paines for the commoditie of all men. But it is comonly seene and proued. Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem. Whiche saiynge (I feare me) is verified more in some of vs Englishe men, than in anye other nation, I woulde God it were not. And yet I thincke there is no man so bestiall, so rude, or so blunt of wit, but that he is (by a certaine instinct of natural inclinatiō) desirous to know things [scan 7] not before knowen, to heare newes not before heard, and to vnderstand bokes in his maternall tonge, written first in a forein langage, to thende not to seme altogether ignoraunte in matters both of the liberall sciences, and also of histories, set forth for his rudiment and instruction, as in Cosmographie, in Astronomie, in Philisophie, in Logike, in Rhetoricke, and specially in Phisick, whereof we had neuer so muche neede as in these our daies, considering the straunge and vnknowen diseases that swarme amonge vs, and mo in number then can be found remedy for. Therefore considering with my self (right honorable) that I could not better declare my bounden duetie vnto you, nor do my countrey a greater pleasure, than to put some thinge abroade vnder youre honoures name, whereby it mighte receiue some commodite: I haue taken in hand to translate this noble and excellent woorke called, The Secretes of the Reueuerende Master, Alexis of Piemount, firste written in the Italian toungue, and after tourned into Frenche, and of late into Dutche, and nowe laste of al into English, because that as well Englishe men, as Italians, Frenche menne, or Dutchmen, may sucke knowlege and profit hereof: beyng a work come out of the hands of so famous a man as Alexis is, and dedicated fyrste to suche a noble prince as the duke of Sauoye is, to whome trifles or fables are [scan 8] not to be presented, nor beinge a man vnder whose name and protection lies or vayne inuentions oughte to be sette forth. Therefore wayinge the age, the learninge and fame of the auctor, & the nobilitie of the saied Prince, men may easely iudge that suche intollerable paynes haue not bene taken in the collection of these secretes, to blowe an vntrueth into mennes eares, but rather that this boke hath ben published and communicated to the worlde by the saied Alexis, for the care and good zeale that he had to the health of mens bodies, and that men of all countreys might haue the knowledge of that with ease, sitting at home in their studies, whiche he got with greate trauayle and laboure, wandering almoste al the world ouer, as in his epistle here to the reader he declareth.

And nowe (right honourable) like as Christopher Plantine of Antwarpe, the printer of this worke in Frenche, chose the Prince of Piemount, to protecte and adourne the fruites of his labours, vnder the honoure of his name: euen so I the translatour hereof into our Englishe tounge, haue thoughte it my duety (with your honours fauour) to presente this my translation vnto you, and to putte it forth vnder your honours name and protection, desiring, and humbly requiring the same, to accept my poore good wyll, hauinge good hope that you shall finde suche thinges in the [scan 9] discourse of the whole booke, that you will not onely take pleasure in the knowledge of them: but also commoditie, if it please you to put in experience and proofe, those that seme moste best vnto you: whereof there bee some as excellente and as easie, as were euer sette foorthe in any toungue, as by your honours wisedom and iudgement, in the readyng you shall easely perceiue. I am not able sufficiently to praise the excellencie of the boke, and the diligence of the aucthour, ner to extol the wonderfull giftes of God in men, whiche accordyng to their talent, impart to the worlde the encrease and fruicte of soche giftes, as he distributeth vnto them. Of the whiche giftes I thinke I should not moche erre, if I saied Phisike to be the best and the moste necessary Nam si corporum nostrorū, & tranquillitatis vitae (quae sine secunda valetudine vix esse potest) rationem habere volumus, fatebimur medicinam excellentissimam, mortalibus necessariam esse. And euen so Cornelius Celsus whiche wrote moste excellente Bookes of Phisike, affirmeth saiyng. Alimēta sanis corporibus agricultura promittit: sanitatem autem aegris medicina: et idcirco deo optimo maximo gratias habere debimus, qui vitam nobis elargitus est: deinde medico, qui eam nobis conseruat, diuturnioremꝙ facit.

[scan 10] All this learninge and knowledge doo the Greke auctors affirme to be most aunciente, and most necessary in a common welth. For, as it is desyred of all men to liue in health of body, so is it requisite that medecines, both preseruatiue and curatiue, be hadde and vsed amonge men, whiche not onelye comforteth the infirme and diseased bodye, but also putteth the soule in remembraunce of Goddes great power and myght, that hath geuen suche vertue vnto thinges growing on the earth, for mannes commoditie, preseruation, and health: which health I pray God longe to remayne with you, and all your family with much encrease of vertue and honoure, vnder the protection of almightye God.

Your humble Seruaunt William Warde.