DurRAnTE’s ASTER HEXAMETERS 395 
So from 1533 to 1783 we may trace the succession of Egenolph’s 
botanical outflow, the text of the Gart der Gesundheit as edited by 
Rhodion in 1533, receiving successive augmentation and revision 
through the many issues of the Areuterbuch. Meyer remarks that 
though neither the woodcuts nor the text actually promoted the 
advancement of knowledge, yet they added vastly to its diffusion 
and formed for a long time the most trusted and widely used 
handbook of botany. 
LXXXI. Castor DuRANTE 
Castor Durante, compiler of the great Italian herbal, was 
born at Gualdo near Spoleto, and died at Viterbo in 1590 while 
court-physician to Pope Sixtus V. He was author of De 
Bonitate ... alimentorum, Pisa, 1565, in Latin, a rare book (its 
Italian translation, // Tesoro della sanita, Venice, 1586, was often 
feprinted) ; and was author of the better known Herbarto Nuovd ; 
in Italian; Rome, 1 385 and often afterwards, with translation in 
Spanish and German. It is alphabetically arranged ; each chapter 
is introduced by the Italian name of the plant, followed by a small 
woodcut copied from Fuchs or Matthioli and measuring es ie 
by 2% in.;* then follow hexameters on the healing poece of 
Plant, written by Durante in the manner of Macer Floridus ; an 
then, under separate headings, the ‘‘ Nomi, Forma, Loco, Tempo, 
Qualita, Virtu.” 
The hexameters on Aster, p. 53, are as follows : 
Atticus Aster habet turgentia discutiendi 
Guttura vim, pueris morbos pellitque caducos ; 
Morsibus atque canis rabiosi imponitur herba haec, 
Serpentesque, incensa fugat; lachrimisque —, 
Ardenti et stomacho prodest, sedique cadenti, 
Inguinibusque simul, coxendicis atque dolori. oe 
* . “ec i) ! 
Then follow the Nomi, among which are Aes pent 
; Franc, petitte Espargoutte, pe eongen aes 
| li Ve ‘rgile intended], inguinale. The description whi ’ 
Fit also the Italian name Stella a’ Atene. 
— = * Vi ice in 1617, credits all the 
Meyer, whose copy was of the folio edition of Veni we and in that of 
Ve: to Fuchs; but in the first edition of 1585 (a my Oe re 
ang of 1636 (ex lib. E. L. Greene), the Aster Atticus a 
| co . ¢d from Matthioli. Changes in editions are slight, t's 
MUSES, p. 57 in 1636. 
figure occurring OM P- 
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