As Galen says: do not frequent too much the courts and halls of the great, as I never did, until you have (a knowledge of) your books, {non visites nimis curias et aulas principum: sicut nec ego feci quousque sciverim libros.}
R. A. 3, 2nd ed.
for it is not conceivable that there would be anything by which a man could reach closer to God than learning, {non est possibile per aliquod fieri proximius deo quam per scientiam.}R. A. 3
according to Galen, therefore I thought to make this book for the humble, and I pray the people who will have this book, that they chew it not with their doggish un-understanding teeth, but use it humbly, for everything that is said here, will be proved according to authority or long time (of study). {Rogo tamen ut istum librum videntes non dente canino mordeant, sed humilitate pertractent, quia quidquid hic dicetur erit vel authenticum, vel longa experientia approbatum: [quae haec omnia Joannes de Gadesden 7timo anno lecturae meae compilavi].}R. A. 3
It is thus I wish this treatise to follow on {Circa quem librum talem volo observare processum.}
R. A. 3
: to give the name of the disease first, then its description, its causes thereafter and then its signs, both general and special. And Johannitius says that things that are accidental to the patient are signs to the leech. Then the prognostics of life or death, and lastly its cure as Johannes Mesue says. {R. A. page 810}R. A. 810