Text.Jociscus.1569-01.A2r/Translation

To the magnificent gentleman, Lord Johannes Crato von Krafftheim, Imperial Councillor and Personal Physician to His Majesty, Andreas Jociscus sends greetings.

Not long ago, most noble Crato, my most honored lord and patron, we offered a brief oration in memory of Oporinus, delivered at our university. We did so because his most significant merits in the republic of letters seemed to demand this of us—that we might, by such a testimony of our reverence and dutiful regard, render due honors to Oporinus.

For many reasons, not difficult to justify, I had not intended to make this public, lest I incur censure from some who might deem it presumptuous to describe the life of a man with whom I had not shared long-standing and intimate acquaintance. Yet, when I perceived that this act of goodwill and human kindness would not displease men of learning and virtue—indeed, that they wished me to make it publicly known—I deferred to their wishes, trusting that with their authority as my shield, I need not fear the slanders of the malicious.

In the very month in which Oporinus fell ill, he entrusted me with a matter of financial business, to be settled in Strasbourg with a certain friend of high reputation, whose help he had found reliable on more than one occasion. Taking the opportunity, he began to speak of his tribulations and recounted the course of his life from the earliest days of his involvement in the printing trade up to that very day. From this conversation, I drew much of what pertains to the conflicts in which he became entangled; I have omitted many things that might have caused pain to others.

What is said of Theophrastus [i.e. Paracelsus], is included for the sake of continuing the historical narrative. Many highly esteemed and learned men have heard these accounts together with me from the mouth of Oporinus himself. Thus, nothing is said out of a desire to mock or slander others—for I have always abhorred the insolence of those who, with a certain satirical bitterness, heap abuse upon the living and wag their finger in scorn, or who, even more impiously, violate the sacred law of the Athenians by reviling and insulting the dead.

But above all, my most honored patron, I wished to make it manifest in your illustrious name that I am not unaware of the high esteem in which you held Oporinus, and that should certain persons of a different school in the medical art seek to assail me with undue severity, I may count upon you as my steadfast and certain protector.

It will be for your integrity to accept my efforts in a favorable spirit, and for your graciousness to extend to me, as you have before, the breath of your favor. And if my labors prove worthy of honoring your virtue and exceptional learning, I shall conduct myself in such a way that you will see I lacked only the means, not the will, to do more.

Farewell. Strasbourg, on the fourth day before the Ides of March, 1569.