Text.BP215.A2r/Translation

To the Most Illustrious Princess, My Lady the Duchess of Elbœuf.

My Lady, the whole company of theologians says and declares with one accord that charity is the fulfilment of the Law, since God, who gave it, himself reduced it to this summary, comprising these two points: namely, to love God with all one’s heart, and one’s neighbour as oneself. The Law, therefore, commands nothing but to love, that is, to hold charity in esteem, or to be charitable. But this love or charity does not consist and reside merely, as that holy doctor Saint John Chrysostom wrote, in loving the person by whom one is loved, or the person from whom one receives agreeable service, or the person from whom one receives benefit; nor in words and promises alone, nor in greetings, but rather in care, solicitude, and deeds: such as delivering persons from need and poverty, assisting the sick, rescuing persons from danger, and helping them in their necessity. One may therefore conclude that it is, as our holy doctors say, the fountain, source, and root of all good things, and say that all the virtues that may be granted and attributed to a person will be vain and without any fruit or effect if charity is not mingled with them.

Now the assistance and aid given to the sick seems to be the most commendable among all works of charity, because there are more people who can assist and help the poor, console the afflicted, visit and relieve prisoners or others who are oppressed, than there are those who can heal the sick. The charity, therefore, which is exercised in this matter, inasmuch as those who are able to do so are rarer than the others, seems to be more commendable.

This single object, which ought to incite those whom God has called to the knowledge of medicine, but especially to its practice, to labour diligently to find a means of relieving and healing the sick swiftly, safely, and as gently as may be done, this, I say, has always impelled me, from the time when it pleased God to give me some knowledge of it, to search into the secrets of nature and the means of attaining and arriving at this end as well and as directly as might be possible for me.

While I was doing this, having at the same time received the honour of being called to the service of my most honoured Lady and mistress, of late most honourable and most blessed memory, my Lady the Grand, your grandmother, whose soul now enjoys the blessed vision of God with the holy angels, where she receives the reward promised to her most renowned virtues and charities, I was then further urged by her to such inquiry, as she was a Lady as accomplished in all perfections and virtues as any who was to be found in her time, especially to the inquiry into the secrets of Paracelsus. This gave me occasion to gather together as many of his books, and of all those who had written and treated of a similar doctrine, as I could then recover. Among others, the great Surgery of the said Paracelsus having fallen into my hands, it seemed to me, after having read and reread it several times, to contain a great part of what I was seeking, with regard to the relief of those who are wounded or otherwise afflicted with ulcers, of whatever sort, form, and nature they may be; but especially and more particularly, and more readily, for giving aid to the wounded in every kind of case.

But since this author wrote his books in a very concealed manner, using difficult terms and obscure and figurative words, especially in the part in which he treats of ulcers; and since, by expounding it and making it understood, one likewise opens the way to understanding his other books, so that one may draw from it the benefit which he himself desired, having had no other aim than charitably to disclose his secrets for the relief, profit, and usefulness of poor sick persons; and also because there are many surgeons who are desirous of knowing this doctrine and gathering its fruit, who are not only ignorant of the German language but also have no great knowledge of the Latin tongue, in order that both the learned and the less learned may gather and derive some profit and satisfaction from this said Surgery, I have rendered and translated it from Latin into our French language.

This I have not done word for word, but paraphrastically, nevertheless following everywhere and in all respects the author’s intention as well as has been possible for me according to the reason of the art; for the person who translated it from German into Latin left in it passages that are very obscure and difficult, as he himself confessed, if indeed it was he who made the annotations in the margin. I have added others, with very ample explanations, in order to clarify and make understood this whole doctrine.

The surgeons, therefore, who out of charity will wish swiftly to heal poor sick persons who are wounded or afflicted with ulcers will see there many remedies that are very proper and convenient, and that will not be difficult to prepare; so that I hope the learned will find some satisfaction in it, and the less learned will have material from which to draw their profit.

Now, since such works are not only useful to the public, but also very suitable for the households of great Lords and Ladies, in which, because of the multitude of servants who are there, and of their other subjects, there is always someone who has need of them; especially in those households where charity is greatly practised in the care and solicitude shown toward the sick, as it is in yours, my Lady, you being descended from those so generous, virtuous, and charitable father and mother who held it, and my said Lord your father still holds it, thanks be to God, in such and so singular esteem that he has always placed his own profit and advantage after that of the public, having assisted the poor in every way, especially the sick, of whom I saw my said Lady your mother take such care that she spared nothing for their assistance.

For this reason, my Lady, I am confident, since, as our aforementioned holy doctor Chrysostom wrote, saying that charity or love is in human beings what moisture is in plants and trees; for, he says, just as plants are born from moisture and grow by means of it, so human beings do by love. Then he adds that moisture rises from the roots into the plant, but is not sent back from the plant into the root; rather, it is carried upward into the seed. Thus charity is transmitted and carried from father and mother to their children.

I hope, therefore, I say, my Lady, that since you have received from God, through the means and ministry of my said most honoured Lord and Lady, your father and mother, this source, fountain, and mother of all virtues, which you practise and cause to be practised in the care and solicitude that you have for the poor sick, and since you are now the wife and companion of a most illustrious and generous prince who has the same care as you, you will take in good part the boldness I have taken in dedicating to you this labour of mine. I thought I could offer it to no other who would accept it with a better heart than you, who represent her to whom I had vowed it, together with my most humble and perpetual service, in order to be the minister and executor of her so charitable desires for the relief of the sick.

Accept therefore, my Lady, if it please you, this small mite, which there offers you from his treasure and with all his heart one who, having no more ample means, has likewise devoted himself forever,

Your most humble, most obedient, and most faithful servant,

Claude Dariot.