II] The German ' Herbarius ' 



21 



health of his body. Since, then, man can have no greater 

 nor nobler treasure on earth than bodily health, I came to 

 the conclusion that I could not perform any more honour- 

 able, useful or holy work or labour than to compile a book 

 in which should be contained the virtue and nature of 

 many herbs and other created things, together with their 

 true colours and form, for the help of all the world and 

 the common good. Thereupon I caused this praiseworthy 

 work to be begun by a Master learned in physic, who, at my 

 request, gathered into a book the virtue and nature of many 

 herbs out of the acknowledged masters of physic, Galen, 

 Avicenna, Serapio, Dioscorides, Pandectarius, Platearius 

 and others. But when, in the process of the work, I turned 

 to the drawing and depicting of the herbs, I marked that 

 there are many precious herbs which do not grow here in 

 these German lands, so that I could not draw them with 

 their true colours and form, except from hearsay. Therefore 

 I left unfinished the work which I had begun, and laid 

 aside my pen, until such time as I had received grace and 

 dispensation to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and also Mount 

 Sinai, where the body of the Blessed Virgin, Saint Catherine, 

 rests in peace. Then, in order that the noble work I had 

 begun and left incomplete should not come to nought, and 

 also that my journey should benefit not my soul alone, but 

 the whole world, I took with me a painter ready of wit, and 

 cunning and subtle of hand. And so we journeyed from 

 Germany through Italy, Istria, and then by way of Slavonia 

 or the Windisch land, Croatia, Albania, Dalmatia, Greece, 

 Corfu, Morea, Candia, Rhodes and Cyprus to the Promised 

 Land and the Holy City, Jerusalem, and thence through 

 Arabia Minor to Mount Sinai, from Mount Sinai towards 

 the Red Sea in the direction of Cairo, Babylonia, and also 

 Alexandria in Egypt, whence I returned to Candia. In 

 wandering through these kingdoms and lands, I diligently 

 sought after the herbs there, and had them depicted and 

 drawn, with their true colour and form. And after I had, 

 by God's grace, returned to Germany and home, the great 

 love which I bore this work impelled me to finish it, and 

 now, with the help of God, it is accomplished. And this 

 book is called in Latin, Ortus Sanitatis, and in German, 

 gart d'gesuntheyf. In this garden are to be found the 



1 Garden of health. 



