Preface, 1611-08-25, Henricus Smetius to the Reader
| Author: | Henricus Smetius |
| Recipient: | Reader |
| Type: | Preface |
| Date: | 25 August 1611 |
| Place: | no place |
| Pages: | 4 |
| Language: | Latin |
| Quote as: | https://www.theatrum-paracelsicum.com/index.php?curid=2897 |
| Editor: | Edited by Julian Paulus |
| Source: | Henricus Smetius, Miscellanea medica, Frankfurt am Main: Jonas Rosa 1611, sig. ):(3r-):(4v [BP.Varia.1611-01]
|
| Names: | Heinrich Brucaeus; Levinus Battus; Paracelsus; Thomas Erastus |
| Places: | Bologna; Antwerp; Rostock; Lemgo |
| Translation: | Raw translation see below |
| Abstract: | Smetius reflects on his career since 1561, his interactions with fellow physicians, and his study of traditional and new medicinal practices, including those of Paracelsus. He discusses the challenges faced during war and civil unrest in Belgium, his move to Westphalia, and the reason for interweaving treatises from other doctors. (generated by Chat-GPT) |
| Back to Paratexts Back to Texts by Henricus Smetius |
[sig. ):(3r] Lectori benevolo salvtem in Domino nostro Christo Iesu.
Iam inde ab Automno anni 1561. cum post acceptum ab Academia Bononiensi publicum de studiis meis, ætatis ann[orum] 24. nondum completo testimonium, per aliquot menses Antwerpiæ nulli obligatus Medicinam facere aggressus essem: Clarissimi duo doctrinaque præstantes viri, Henricus Brucæus Alostanæ Reipublicæ in Flandria tunc temporis ordinarius Medicus, atque Levinus Battus in celeberrima Rostochiensium Schola Philosophiæ ac Med[icinae] Professor publicus, ambo cognationis jure, & studiorum communione mihi conjuncti, [sig. ):(3v] cæperunt mecum de varia communis artis materia subinde per literas colloqui.
Verum Epistolarum ἐπίγραφα quædam per occupationes alias interciderunt. Nec minus ultrò citroq́ue scribendi officium per bellicas calamitates in Belgis paulò post obortas, adeoq́ue meam, ex intestini belli patriæ impendentis formidine, spontaneam aliò transmigrandi necessitatem, ad tempus est intermissum: dum mihi meisq́ue sedem tranquilam, Deus opt[imus] max[imus] pro benignitate sua paterna, inter Vvestfalos Lemgovij assignasset.
Illic demum resumpto in manus calama, ad mutuas scribendi operas reversi sumus: & quidem majori quam ante sedulitate: cum aliis de rebus, tum verò imprimis de nova Theophrasti Paracelsi Medicina: circa tempus illud, in usum apud quosdam veniente: per quam Galenica nonnullis in locis fastidir cepit. Quo affectu cum Doctor Lev[inus] Battus correptus esset: ipse quoq́ue & mihi, [sig. ):(4r] veteris artis nauseam movere conabatur. Verum ego, qui verisimilibus à proposito dimoveri nunquam assueverim: Firmamenta eius ad rationis trutinam expendere necesse putavi: alternisque ita scriptionib[us] de veteri & nuper nata Medicandi arte, inter nos conferri cœptum: ausu sane juvenili, & quidem triennio antè, quam mihi de Thomæ Erasti Antiparacelsicis certi quicquam constaret. Quamvis autem ad eruditionem Erastinam, ejusdemque in examinandis adversariorum probationibus solertiam, & refutandis judicij acumen, nihil addi posse videam: Nihilominus, ut & ab aliis de tali materia aliquid quondam tentatum fuisse: nostramque ætatem in otio nequaquam diffluxisse congoscatur: Hos literarios conatus, licet tunc per ætatem fortè præmaturos, non tamen, quod speramus, omninò inutiles futuros, à blattarum commercio, post XL. annorum detentionem liberatos, lucem videre publicam permisimus.
Quibis nonnullos clarorum Medi- [sig. ):(4v] corum tractatus, velut adoptivos interseruimus, & quidem duas ob causas, quarum prior, quod sint tanquam responsiones ad Epistolas meas, per quas ipsis talia scribendi occasionem dederam: Altera cum lectu sint dignissimi, ac perquam utiles, ut Lectori ad manus essent, qui fortassis alioquin in obscuro mansuri fuissent, aut sub cupidi Lecotis oculos, haud facilè perventuri. His itaque furere, ac vale.
Præmonitum tamen te volo, Amice Lector, ne operis huius lectioni te accingas prius, quam lapsus operarum incuria commissos, quos fini operis subjunximus, suis quosque locis correxeris: alioquin absona subinde, mentique auctoris dissentanea, præter opinionem occurrerent. Iterum vale 25. August 1611. ætatis meæ in annum LXXV. benignitate Christi Iesu productæ.
Henricus Smetius à Leda.
English Raw Translation
Generated by ChatGPT-4 on 9 August 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 benevolent reader, greetings in our Lord Christ Jesus.
From the autumn of the year 1561, when, after receiving from the University of Bologna public testimony about my studies at the age of not yet 24, I embarked on practicing Medicine in Antwerp for a few months, without being beholden to anyone: two illustrious and excellent men in learning, Henry Brucaeus, ordinary physician to the Republic of Alosta in Flanders at that time, and Levinus Battus, a public Professor of Philosophy and Medicine in the renowned School of Rostock, both related to me by birthright and shared studies, began to converse with me about various matters of our common art through letters.
But some letters' inscriptions were lost amid other occupations. Nor was the duty of writing back and forth any less interrupted by the war calamities in Belgium that arose shortly thereafter, and indeed my need to move elsewhere spontaneously, out of fear of impending civil war in my homeland, was suspended for a while: until the most good and great God, in His paternal kindness, assigned to me and mine a peaceful dwelling among the Westphalians in Lemgo.
There, at last, having taken up the pen again, we returned to our mutual writing labors, and indeed with greater diligence than before, especially regarding the new medicine of Theophrastus Paracelsus, which around that time began to be used by some, and began to be disdained in some places by the Galenic. With this sentiment, when Doctor Levinus Battus had been seized, he also tried to move me, to the disgust of the old art. But I, who have never been accustomed to be swayed by plausible reasons from my purpose, thought it necessary to weigh its foundations on the scales of reason: and thus, through alternate writings about the old and newly born art of healing, it began to be discussed between us, with youthful audacity, and indeed three years before anything certain was known to me about Thomas Erastus's Antiparacelsics. Although I see that nothing can be added to Erastus's learning, his skill in examining adversaries' proofs, his acumen in refuting judgment, nevertheless, so that it may be recognized that something has sometimes been attempted by others on such a subject, and that our age has not been altogether idle, we have allowed these literary efforts, perhaps premature for their age but not, we hope, entirely useless, to see the public light, freed from the commerce of moths, after 40 years of detention.
To these, we have interwoven some treatises of famous physicians, as adopted, and indeed for two reasons: the first, that they are like responses to my letters, through which I had given them occasion to write such things; the second, that they are most worthy of reading and very useful, so that they might be at hand for the reader, who otherwise might have remained in obscurity or not easily have come under the eyes of the eager reader. So rage, and farewell.
However, I want to warn you, dear Reader, not to undertake the reading of this work before you have corrected the errors committed through the negligence of the workers, which we have appended at the end of the work, in their respective places: otherwise, incongruities would continually occur, contrary to the author's intention. Farewell again on the 25th of August 1611, my age extended to the year 75 by the kindness of Christ Jesus.
Henricus Smetius of Leda.
