But consider that in
one year I once taught in three different universities. If I had put
off the task of writing till this time; if I were now just beginning
to digest my materials; students would not have had the use of my
anatomical labours, which posterity may or may not judge superior to
the rechauffes formerly in use, whether of Mesua, of Gatinaria, of some
Stephanus or other on the differences, causes and symptoms of diseases,
or, lastly, of a part of Servitor's pharmacopoeia. As to my notes, which
had grown into a huge volume, they were all destroyed by me; and on the
same day there similarly perished the whole of my paraphrase on the ten
books of Rhazes to King Almansor, which had been composed by me with far
more care than the one which is prefaced to the ninth book. With
these also went the books of some author or other on the formulae and
preparation of medicines, to which I had added much matter of my own
which I judged to be not without utility; and the same fate overtook all
the books of Galen which I had used in learning anatomy, and which I had
liberally disfigured in the usual fashion. I was on the point of leaving
Italy and going to Court; those physicians you know of had made to the
Emperor and to the nobles a most unfavourable report of my books and of
all that is published nowadays for the promotion of study; I therefore
burnt all these works that I have mentioned, thinking at the same time
that it would be an easy matter to abstain from writing for the future.
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