246 AsTeR History; ARNALD 
that the juice is good for the eyes of men,” Arnald continues to 
quote the imported Aster-property, saying: ‘‘ With anise and 
white wine in drink it is a remedy for the king’s evil and for 
ulcers which creep.” 
Inula Helenium, p. 302. To the two properties ascribed by the 
Regimen, Arnald adds (what the ancients had believed of Aster) 
“its root is good for the stomach, and for serpents’ bites, and for 
all ruptures and epileptic convulsions; and its leaves boiled in 
wine are good for sciatica.” 
Primula veris, p. 285. ‘Primula veris ... paralysi... atque 
articulorum vitiis .. . auxiliatur; atque inde Arthritica etiam a non- 
nullis et Herba paralysis appellatur.” 
XLIV. PLATEARIO AND FAMILY 
The Plateario family of Salerno, as source of the Circa intans, 
mark the center of the middle ages for botany and medicine. At 
least nine or ten members seem to have been writers. 
Meyer, 3: 460, states that “to the Platearius family belong at 
least three generations one after another, man and wife, father, 
mother and son, all Salernitan physicians, Meistern und Meisterin- 
nen,” 
Renzi, Collectio Salernitana 1: 180, arranges the Platearlo 
family as follows: Giovanni I, about 1050; Giovanni II and 
Matteo I [ writing from] 1070-1090; Matteo II, 1130-1160. 
But Giacosa (65) complains that Renzi contradicts himself 
his Storia documentata, 208, assigning the Practica brevis to Giovannl 
II and to 1090-1120, but on page p. 237 to 1120-1150. 
I endeavor below to bring together the facts accessible and 
state my inferences. 
First GENERATION 
1. GIovanni PLatearto I di San Paolo,* “« medico a Salerno nel 
secolo XI,” + the Platearius of citation respecting medical practice, 
author of the Practica ; died perhaps 1040 A. D.; called “ Giover= 
about 1050,” by Renzi; called “ Platearius” and mentioned 
first, before Copho, in a Breslau list of Salernitan writers deemed 
*So called by Haller, Bibl, Botanica, 1: 221. 1771. 
+ Camus, 8. 
t Renzi, Collectio Salernitana, 1: 180. 
