Letter, 1568-02-13, Pietro Perna to Jacques Gohory

Author:	Pietro Perna
Recipient:	Jacques Gohory
Type:	Letter
Date:	13 February 1568
Place:	Basel
Pages:	6
Language:	Latin

Quote as:

https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=2045

Editor:	Edited by Julian Paulus
Source:	Paracelsus, Compendium, Ex optimis quibusque eius libris, ed. Jacques Gohory, Basel: Pietro Perna 1568, sig. Bb6r–Bb8v [BP099]

Note:	The edition in the "Corpus Paracelsisticum" has a wrong page order.
CP:	Edited by Kühlmann/Telle in Corpus Paracelsisticum 2, n° 80

Translation:

Raw translation see below

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[sig. Bb6r] Typograph[vs] Leoni Svavio, I[acobo] G[ohory] P[arisiensi]..

Mihi tecum nulla, Leo Suaui, de Hippocratica seu Theophrastica medicina, an hanc non intelligens labefactes, an verò illam promouere studeas, quæstio aut controuersia est: nihil enim ego in dubium reuoco, quòd neutrum profitear, aut alteram vel tantillum intelligam. Sed mihi immerito de calumnia illata in ius vocandus es per humanitatis & prudentiæ leges iurisq́ue gentium omnium, in quas tu illarum non imperitus, plus æquo affectibus indulgens turpißimè impegisti. Efficacior enim in te fuit naturalis illa leuitas, quàm philosophiæ erudition & legum peritia, quas tuis in scriptis sparsim verbis tantum magnificè ostentas. Quid enim leuius & à philosopho alienius esse potest quàm alios non indoctos homines, sæpius, etiam te forsitan doctiores, cum docent disputantq́ue de rebus grauißimis lacessere, conuitijsq́ue proscindere, nulliq́ue parcere, si quid fortè dixerint quod non omnino arrideat, & alicubi (vt ille ait) bonus dormitarit Homerus: cum interim præterea & docte disputarint, & sapienter sanxerint, sine discrimine tam in viuos quàm in mortuos debacchari? Impudentißimè quoque facit si quis ignotam sibi factorum rationem, aut res ipsas, liuore tantum quodam & ingernij prauitate abreptus, non reprehendat modò, sed etiam capitaliter criminetur.   Hunc tu, Leo Suaui, philosophum censebis, qualem te esse in tuo paßim scripto videri cupis? Ego verò neque philosophi neque hominis nomine dignum iudico. talem [sig. Bb6v] vero te quicunque scriptum hoc tuam in Paracelsum legerint deprehendent, vanum scilicet ostentatorem, mendacem, impudentem, & rerum de quibus scribit ignorantißimum. Et vt quod sentio, quodq́ue à doctis vtriusque sectæ medicis audiui in medium proferam, nemini satisfacis: vterq́ue Theophrastica te prorsus ignorare affirmat, atque ostentare potius vtramque medicinam quàm alteram callere dicunt: hæc vero duo hac tua vnica scriptione obtinuisse, vt vtrique inuisus, nullam cum Hippocraticis & Methodicis inijsse gratiam nisi malam, alterum quòd à Spagyricis et Theophrasticis malè accipieris, tanquam eorum artis prorsus ignarus, etiam si omnes solus Theophrasticos coemas libros solusq́ue poßideas, cum eius linguæ ignarus sis, in qua ille ferè sua omnia, præter pauca, scripsit. At quum ego hîc nullius patrocinium susceperim, missos illos faciens quos tu inhumaniter tractas (quamq́ue & impijßimè leuißimeq́ue fecisse videri potes, quod & in mortuos & eos illustres philosophos, de literis optimè meritos, de rebus naturalibus atque diuinis, qui hactenus apud omnes bonos et doctos communi consensu in præcio fuerunt, sine discrimine tanquam in rudes asinos impudentißime inueheris) ad me ipsum venio, deq́ue me loquar: quem cum tu non noueris, neque quid in me mentiaris scias, vt elegans videaris & facundus, calumniarum tuarum flumine, vnà cum nobili atque illustri Paracelsi alumno D[omini] Adamo à Bodenstein, innoluis atque trahis, impostorem mentiendo & furem appellans. Non hæc in schola philosophorum maximorum, quibus iam non parem te modò [sig. Bb7r] haberi, sed & superiorem quoque cum illos contemnis, iactanter existimas, neque minus Christi magistri, sed nebulonum & sycophantarum contubernio didicisti. At ne ego videar in te, vt tu in alios fecisti, calumniose agere, testem te ipsum voco, iudiceq́ue facio, vt ex verbis tuis iudices. Ita namque scribis in præfatione scholiorum tuorum in quatuor libros Paracelsi de vita longa, quam totam ferè conuitijs & calumnijs refarxisti, pagina 136. tuæ editionis.

Libris autem his quatuor de vita longa inseruit (Adamus) quartum vnum velut supposititium partum, quarto verò atque legitimo in quintum numerum vi quadam eiecto, & iniustè de sua possessione deturbato, in reliquis libris facta quorundam verborum vel syllabarum immutatione penè ridicula, vt opus vænalius prostaret, quod nouum hac parte, incrementi emptori esse videretur (magnæ enim sunt hodie, ditesq́ue librorum in Germania nundinæ) Adamum medicum non puduisse, quartum istum librum nigus inanibus scatentem obtrudere, qui nec serie rerum vlla cum reliquis cohæreat, nec sententiarum Paracelsi subtilitatem, nec dictionis grauitatem redoleat.

Miror, inquam, illum lucri vel gloriolæ spe, adeò fauisse typographi imposturæ, qui more propolarum rei suffuratæ nouam dissuendo speciem induunt, furti tegendi gratia, &c.

Ista sunt tua verba (impudentißime) liuorem euomentia tuum: quorum te, si micam pudoris haberes, multo magis pudere deberet, ea quæ dicis malitiosè [sig. Bb7v] fingentem, quàm D[ominum] Adamum quæ vera sunt sui magistri, prodentem. Ita ne philosophum agis, quem ab omni fuco & mendacio abhorrentem descripsisti? Sed tu verbotenus tantum philosophus es, re autem vera mendacißimus calumniator, virgis ad ignominiam publicè, ne quid peius dicam, cædendus. Sed ne & ego quoque videar potius ex animi commotione atque vindictæ appetentia loqui quàm veritate, age oculari demonstratione omnibus videre volentibus ostendamus. Ante annos plus minus quinque D[ominus] Adamus præfatus, mihi vicino suo ante alios beneuolentiæ erga me suæ & civinitatis ergò, libros quinque de vita longa Theophrasti Paracelsi, scriptos clarißimi nunc typographi Io[annis] Oporini manu, olim ipsius Paracelsi amanuensis, ipso dictante authore, eodemq́ue ordine quo à me impreßi sunt, ne apice quidem addito vel dempto, imprimendos tradidit. Cuius rei nobis testis locuples est non solum ipse Ioann[es] Oporinus, sed & exemplar ipsum: quod adhuc apud D[ominum] Adamum asseruatur, voluit enim quasi huiusce tragœdiæ præsagus sibi incorruptum reddi. Quod si quis hoc quod à me nunc dicitur inficiari velit, veniat visum, oculosq́ue suos testes adhibeat. Quid igitur opus fuit, homo leuißime, in nos ita insulsißimè debacchari atque mentiri? Quis tibi posthuc si contingat te veritatem dicere, credet? Sed tu, si ex vnguibus Leonem æstimare licet, æquè nosti Paracelsi doctrinam atque morem: quem velis nolis hodie à me disces, qui neque doctor sum, neque medicus, multo minus Paracelsi discipulus. Qui mos talis illi fuit, vt idem sæpius scripserit, neque eadem methodo, neque ijsdem [sig. Bb8r] verbis, sed in eandem sententiam, vt in multis libris fecisse constat, & in hoc præsertim de vita longa, quem eadem Oporini manu apud eundem Doctorem videbis quatuor tantum libros continentem, videbis & illum de quo nos impreßimus quinque libris constare. Et nunc sub prælo habeo librum eiusdem de Anatomia Oporini item manu scriptum, quamuis antea fuerit excusus, nescio cuius manu. Imprimo & librum de Gradibus, quem video tibi familiarem, cum præfatione & scholijs eiusdem Adami, in qua paucis tibi satis respondet. Disce itaque ictus & conuictus tuum leue iudicium suspendere atque linguam. Quod verò me furem & impostorem appellas, id si in te & tuos verteris, potest fieri, vt non mentiaris. Nos lucri gratia, vt audisti, nemini imposuimus, nemini quicquam furati sumus, sed bona fide quæ inuenimus, lectoribus communicauimus in Reip[ublicæ] gratiam & commodum: lucrum verò quod inde sperabamus vestri nobis imponentes furati sunt. Neque hîc nugamur vt tu, sed nostro malo veritatem dicimus. Sed in te retorquendo telum optima ratione impostor appellaberis. Quid enim aliud est impostor, nisi qui quod fictum & falsum est ostentat, et quod verum, abscondit atque supprimit? vnde supposititius aut imposititius partus, cum vero clam submoto, adulterinum sub ponis, aut clam imponis. Nonne & tu, vir integerrime, proprio nomine omisso, vestigijs tantum veri nominis relictis Hieroglyficorum more, fictitium & adulterinum Leonem supposuisti? vt si forte scriptum tuum arrisisset, non careres van illa floriola apud sapientes & Hieroglificorum indagatores, [sig. Bb8v] qui reliquo vulgo nomen tuum inclamarent, et quod in notis literarum I. G. P. tectius indicasti, apertißimè binis in locis te clarißimis viris atque doctrißimis adnumerasti. Interim sub clypeio obscuritatis voluisti ijs ignotus esse, quos ignorantiæ imposturæ, furti, &c. publice accusasti. Reliqua nolo prosequi, postquam et me purgaui & in te calumnias & criminationes retorsi. Dicendum restaret à me typographo de tuo tam artificiose et tam bene emendato libro, sed de optimo humanißimoq́ue amico meo, quem puto præter nomen & sumptum nihil in librum contulisse, idq́ue vt tibi (quæ sua est in omnes humanitatis) gratificaretur, cum ipse domi suæ non excudat, sed iners aliquis, mancipium potius dixerim, excusit, vt patellæ dignum aptaret operculum. Sed ad alia meliora vocor. Vale Idibus Febr[uarii]. Basileæ anno M. D. LXVIII.

Apparatus

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English Raw Translation

Generated by ChatGPT-4 on 4 April 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.

The typographer to Leo Suavius.

I have no dispute or controversy with you, Leo Suavi, about Hippocratic or Theophrastic medicine, whether you are undermining it without understanding it or genuinely trying to promote it; for I do not doubt that I profess neither, nor understand even a little of either. But you are unjustly calling me to court for the slanderous accusation you have inflicted on me according to the laws of humanity, wisdom, and the laws of all nations, which you, not ignorant of them, have most disgracefully violated by indulging your passions too much. For your natural levity was more powerful in you than the learning of philosophy and the knowledge of laws, which you magnificently display in your writings only in scattered words. For what can be lighter and more alien to a philosopher than to provoke others, not unlearned men, perhaps even more learned than yourself, when they teach and debate about very serious matters, to tear them apart with insults, and to spare no one if they happen to say something that is not entirely pleasing, and somewhere (as he says) the good Homer nods off: while they, moreover, argue learnedly and wisely, without distinction, both among the living and the dead? It is also most impudent if anyone, being carried away by mere envy and the perversity of his genius, not only reproaches the unknown reasons of things, or the things themselves, but also criminally accuses them.

Do you, Leo Suavi, consider yourself a philosopher, as you wish to appear in your various writings? I, indeed, judge you to be neither worthy of the name of a philosopher nor of a man. And everyone who reads this writing of yours against Paracelsus will find that you are a vain pretender, a liar, impudent, and extremely ignorant of the things about which you write. And so that I may bring forth what I think and what I have heard from learned doctors of both medical schools, you satisfy no one: both affirm that you are completely ignorant of Theophrastic medicine, and they say that you are rather showing off both medical schools than being skilled in either. But these two things you have achieved with this single writing of yours: you have become hateful to both, and have gained no favor with the Hippocratics and Methodics except a bad one, the one because you are poorly received by the Spagyric and Theophrastic schools, as if you were utterly ignorant of their art, even if you alone owned all the Theophrastic books and possessed them alone, since you are ignorant of the language in which he wrote almost all his works, except for a few. But since I have undertaken no one's defense here, leaving aside those whom you treat inhumanely (and whom you can appear to have treated most impiously and lightly, because you most impudently inveigh against them indiscriminately, as if against rude asses, even if they are deceased and distinguished philosophers, who have deserved well of letters, of natural and divine things, and who have hitherto been held in high esteem by all good and learned men by common consent), I come to myself and speak about myself: whom, since you do not know me, nor do you know what you are lying about me, so that you may appear elegant and eloquent, you, together with the noble and illustrious student of Paracelsus, Adam von Bodenstein, entangle and drag me into the stream of your calumnies, calling me an impostor and a thief by lying. This is not the case in the school of the greatest philosophers, where you not only think yourself equal but even superior to them, and you contemptuously disregard them; nor is it less so with the teachings of Christ, but you have learned from the company of frauds and sycophants. But lest I seem to act slanderously towards you, as you have done to others, I call you as a witness and make you the judge, so that you may judge from your words. For you write thus in the preface to your annotations on the four books of Paracelsus on the long life, which you have almost entirely filled with insults and slanders, on page 136 of your edition.

In these four books on the long life, (Adam) inserted a fourth one as if it were a spurious birth, and with a certain force ejected the fourth and legitimate one into the fifth number, and unjustly dispossessed it from its possession; in the remaining books, he made almost ridiculous changes to some words or syllables so that the work would be more marketable, appearing as a new part, and would seem to be an added value for the buyer (for today there are great and wealthy book fairs in Germany). It was not shameful for Adam the physician to impose this fourth book, which is full of empty words, and which neither has any coherence with the others in the order of things, nor does it have the subtlety of Paracelsus' opinions, nor the weight of his diction.

I say, consider, that person so motivated by the hope of gain or vain glory, that they engaged in a printer's deception, who, like those who smuggle stolen goods, put on a new appearance by spreading false information, for the sake of covering their theft, etc.

These are your words (most shamelessly) vomiting your jealousy: you should be much more ashamed of them if you had a shred of decency, as you maliciously invent what you say rather than Adam, who is revealing what is true of his master. So, are you not acting like the philosopher you described as abhorring all deceit and falsehood? But you are only a philosopher in words, while in truth you are the most deceitful slanderer, deserving to be publicly beaten with rods for disgrace, not to mention worse. But so that I too may not seem to speak more from emotional agitation and desire for revenge than from truth, let us show by ocular demonstration to all who wish to see. About five years ago, the aforementioned Adam, out of his goodwill towards me and our neighboring relationship, handed over to me for printing the five books on the long life of Theophrastus Paracelsus, written by the hand of the now renowned printer Johann Oporinus, who was once Paracelsus' own amanuensis, dictated by the author himself, and in the same order in which they were printed by me, without even a single apex added or removed. Of this matter, not only is Johann Oporinus a wealthy witness for us, but also the very exemplar itself, which is still preserved by Adam, for he wished to have it returned to him uncorrupted, as if foreseeing this tragedy. If anyone would like to deny what I am saying now, let them come and see, and let their own eyes be the witnesses. What need was there, then, most frivolous man, to so senselessly rage against us and lie? Who will believe you hereafter if you happen to tell the truth? But you, if you can judge a lion by its claws, know Paracelsus' teachings and ways as well as I do: whether you like it or not, you will learn them from me today, for I am neither a teacher nor a doctor, much less a disciple of Paracelsus. Such was his habit that he often wrote the same things, not in the same method, nor with the same words, but with the same meaning, as is evident in many books, and especially in this one on the long life, which you will see in the same Oporinus' handwriting containing only four books with the same doctor. You will also see that the one we printed consists of five books. And now I have under the press his book on Anatomy, also written by Oporinus' hand, although it has been printed before, by someone else's hand. I am also printing the book on Degrees, which I see is familiar to you, with a preface and annotations by the same Adam, in which he briefly responds to you. Therefore, learn to suspend your light judgment and hold your tongue, both beaten and defeated.

As for calling me a thief and impostor, if you turn that towards yourself and your associates, it might be possible that you are not lying. We have not deceived anyone for the sake of profit, as you have heard, nor have we stolen anything from anyone, but in good faith, we have shared what we have found with readers for the benefit and advantage of the Republic: but the profit we hoped for from it, your kind has stolen from us. We are not joking here as you do, but we are speaking the truth to our own detriment. But by turning the weapon back on you, you will rightly be called an impostor. What else is an impostor, but one who shows what is fictitious and false, and hides and suppresses what is true? Hence the spurious or imposed birth, when you secretly remove the truth, you substitute or secretly impose something adulterated. And did you not, most honest man, omit your proper name, leaving only traces of the true name in the manner of hieroglyphics, and present a fictitious and adulterated lion? So that if perhaps your writing had been well received, you would not lack that vain little glory among the wise and the investigators of hieroglyphics, who would proclaim your name to the rest of the crowd, and what you have indicated more obscurely with the letters I.G.P., you have most openly listed yourself in two places among the most distinguished and learned men. Meanwhile, under the shield of obscurity, you wanted to be unknown to those whom you publicly accused of ignorance, imposture, theft, etc. I do not wish to pursue the rest, after having both cleared myself and turned back the accusations and charges on you.

It remains for me, the printer, to speak of your book, so skillfully and well corrected, but about my most excellent and kind friend, whom I think contributed nothing to the book except the name and expense, and did so to please you (as is his kindness towards everyone), since he does not print it himself, but some idle person, or rather I would say a servant, printed it, to fit a lid worthy of the dish. But I am called to better things. Farewell on the Ides of February. Basel, in the year M.D. LXVIII.