Dedication, 1568-11-16, Adam von Bodenstein to Thomas Sunner

From Theatrum Paracelsicum
Author: Adam von Bodenstein
Recipient: Thomas Sunner
Type: Dedication
Date: 16 November 1568
Place: Basel
Pages: 4
Language: Latin
Quote as: https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=1954
Editor: Edited by Julian Paulus
Source:
Paracelsus, Praeparationum, Libri duo, ed. Adam von Bodenstein, [Straßburg: Bernhard Jobin] [1569], sig. a2r-a3v [BP104]
CP: Not in Kühlmann/Telle, Corpus Paracelsisticum
Translation: Raw translation see below
Back to Paratexts
Back to Texts by Adam von Bodenstein

[sig. a2r] Eximio prvdentissimo´qve viro domino Thomæ Sunnero Pontensi, Medico vigilantissimo, Domino & amico longè charissimo. Adamus à Bodenstein. S[alutem] D[icit].

Libellos præceptoris fidelißimi Theophrasti de Præparationibus, aliquot annis ædere retinui, quòd semper sum ratus, fore quendam qui absolutiora præter ea quæ nunc publicamus, in lucem daturus. Erat enim in nonnullis Paracelso consuetudo, vt propria scripta, arrepta occasione, temporis commoditate per experientiam adaugeret, quousque ad veram consistentiam duxisset. Verum cùm [sig. a2v] tempus prætereat, & nos magis magisq́ue senescamus alios expectando. Non est adeo laude dignum, si æquo plus differamus, participes rerum magnarum quibus nemini obesse, plerisque prodesse possumus, facere. Itaque cùm inter varias virtutes & eximiam eruditinem, quam Altißimus tibi contribuit, etiam id comperiam, te eorum librorum, quorum scripta multum emolumenti & laudis meritò demerentur[c1], indefessum indagatorem, scientiarumq́ue iudicem iustum, & magno desiderio ob id enixè rogare, tibi libro Theophrasti transmitti, statui tuo patrocinio me clientulum, hisce tibi hucvsque nimirum non visis Præparationibus eximijs obtemperare, imò committere & commendare. Quorum mentem si trutinaueris exactius, diruto dubio, longè excellentiora, [sig. a3r] quàm in omnibus Medicorum antiquorum voluminibus, & cunctorum Neotericorum scholijs reperies. Hæc sufficiant, ampliore enim oratione commendarem, si vel vllo, vel saltem aliqua ex parte, authoris scripta elogio indigerent: sed cùm talia existant, vt te senem reficiant & delectent, & meritò vniuersis doctis æquisq́ue sint admirationi, necnon Diuina prouidentia gratißima, insipidis & ociosis periculosißima, non est, vt mea barbarie diutius te obtundem. Hoc à te viro doctißimo tantum efflagito, vt meum studium (qui primus extiti discipulorum, nunquam terrore vllo perculsus, edendo saluberrimos fructus diuini Theophrasti nostri) boni æquiq́ue facere velis, iuxta illud: Se desint vires, laudanda voluntas. Et[c2] qui per Ioannem Aurspachium no- [sig. a3v] strum amicum imprecatus es fœlicißima, hisce, nec minus sacratißimis preculis, te virum mihi obseruandißimum, misericordißimo meq́ue vtriq́ue commendatum cupium. Vale. Datæ ex Musæo nostro Basileæ. Anno 1568. die Othmari.

Apparatus

Corrections

  1. demerentur] corrected from: demerentnr
  2. Et] corrected from: Et Et



English Raw Translation

Generated by ChatGPT on 16 March 2023. Attention: This translation is a machine translation by artificial intelligence. The translation has not been checked and should not be cited without additional human verification.

To the excellent, most prudent, and watchful man, Sir Thomas Sunnerus of Pontus, the most vigilant physician, my dearest friend and master. Adam von Bodenstein sends greetings.

I have kept the faithful writings of Theophrastus on Preparations for several years, always thinking that someone would publish something more complete than what we are now making public. For in some respects, it was customary for Paracelsus to add to his own writings, seized upon opportunity and convenience, by means of experience, until he had led them to true consistency. But since time passes, and we grow older and older waiting for others, it is not so praiseworthy if we delay more than is fair when we can make many people happy and benefit no one. Therefore, since I have discovered that among your various virtues and outstanding learning, which the Most High has granted you, you are also an indefatigable investigator of these books, whose writings are deserving of great benefit and praise, a fair judge of sciences, and I am eager to send you a copy of Theophrastus' book, I have decided to make myself your client and to offer you these exceptional Preparations, which have not been seen by you until now, to be entrusted to your patronage and commendation. If you scrutinize their meaning more exactly, you will have no doubt that you will find them far superior to anything in the volumes of all the ancient physicians and in the annotations of all the modern ones. These are enough, for I would praise them at greater length if the author's writings required any praise, even a little bit. But since they exist to refresh and delight an old man like you and are worthy of admiration by all the learned and fair-minded, and by the grace of God most pleasant and most dangerous for the tasteless and idle, it is not fitting for my barbarism to dull you any longer. I ask this only of you, the most learned man, that you should be willing to do good and right by my zeal (who was the first of his disciples, never frightened by any fear, in publishing the wholesome fruits of our divine Theophrastus). According to the saying, "If the strength is lacking, the willingness should be praised." And since you prayed for me in your most sacred prayers through our friend Johann Aurspach, I also desire to commend myself to you as a man to be observed and pitied. Farewell. Given from our Museum in Basel, on the day of St. Othmar in the year 1568.