Latin — 1533, repaired
[E]st autem videre nunc, quod omnes res habent inter se amicitiam et inimicitiam: et omnis res habet aliquod timendum et horribile, inimicum et destructivum contra, aliquod exultans, beatificans et confortans: sic in elementis, ignis adversatur aquae: et aer terrae; nam per haec quatuor, extremis ordine transactis, contraria elementa sibi invicem adversantur, et media inter se aeternum inter se conveniunt.
Rursus in caelestibus Saturno amici sunt, Mercurius, Iupiter, Sol et Luna: inimici eius Mars et Venus: Iovis amici sunt omnes planetae praeter Martem, sicut et Martem omnes odio habent, praeter Venerem: Solem amant Iupiter et Venus, inimicantur Mars, Mercurius et Luna: Venerem diligunt omnes praeter Saturnum: Mercurii amici sunt, Iupiter, Venus et Saturnus: inimici, Sol, Luna, Mars: Lunae autem amici sunt, Iupiter, Venus, Saturnus: inimici, Mars et Mercurius.
Est alia stellarum inimicitia, quando videlicet habent domos oppositas: sicut Saturnus ad luminaria, Iupiter ad Mercurium, Mars ad Venerem. Et fortior inimicitia est eorum, quorum exaltationes oppositae sunt: ut Saturni et Solis, Iovis et Martis, Veneris et Mercurii. Fortissima autem est amicitia eorum qui concordant in natura, qualitate, substantia, potestate, sicut Mars cum Sole, et Venus cum Luna, similiter Iupiter cum Venere: et est amicitia eorum quorum exaltatio est in domo alterius: ut Saturni cum Venere, Iovis cum Luna, Martis cum Saturno, Solis cum Marte, Veneris cum Iove, Lunae cum Venere.
Et cuiusmodi sunt amicitiae et inimicitiae superiorum, tales sunt inclinationes rerum illis subditarum, istis inferioribus. Habitudines ergo istae amicitiae et inimicitiae, nihil aliud sunt, quam inclinationes quaedam rerum in se invicem, appetendo talem vel talem rem, si absit: et moveri ad illa, nisi impediatur, et requiescere in adepto, fugiendo contrarium, et horrendo proximationem eius, nec quiescere in illo. Hac itaque sententia ductus Heraclitus, professus est omnia fieri per litem et amicitiam.
Inclinationes vero amicitiae in vegetabilibus et mineralibus sunt, qualem habet magnes attractivam in ferrum: et smaragdus in divitias, et gratiam: iaspis in partum: achates in facundiam: simili modo naphtha trahit ignem, prosilitque in ea undecunque visam: similiter aproxis herbae radix, e longinquo attrahit ignem, ut naphtha: et similis inclinatio est inter palmam masculinam et feminam: quarum cum ramum unius ramus alterius tetigerit, complicant se in mutuum amplexum, nec fructum fert femina absque masculo: et amygdala solitaria minus fecunda est. Amant vites, ulmum, et oppium: et oliva myrtum mutuo diligit: similiter oliva et ficus.
In animalibus vero amicitia est inter merulam et turdum, cornicem et ardeolam, inter pavones et columbas, turtures et psittacos. Unde scribit Sappho ad Phaonem:
[verse, OCR damaged — see flag]
Rursus amici sunt musculus et balaena. Nec solum animalium inter se amicitia est, sed etiam cum aliis rebus, ut cum metallis, et lapidibus, et cum vegetalibus: sic feles sylvestris gaudet nepeta herba, ad cuius affricationem coitum viperae traditur, et defectum masculi supplere: et equae in Cappadocia se flatui venti exponunt, atque ex eius afflatu et attractu concipiunt: sic ranae, bufones, serpentes, et quaecunque venenosa reptilia, gaudent in planta, quae apium risus dicitur, de qua ferunt medici, si quis comederit, ridendo moritur.
Rursus testudo quando venatur a serpente, comedit origanum, et conservatur per illud: et ciconia in serpentum pastu origano sibi salutem quaerit, et mustela pugnatura contra regulum, comedit rutam, unde cognoscimus origanum et rutam virtutem possidere contra venena. Sic in quibusdam animalibus est naturalis peritia, et ars innata medicinalis: nam bufo quando alieno morsu venenove vulneratur, solet adire rutam, vel salviam, et locum vulneris affricare, et sic se a periculo veneni liberare.
Sic homines a brutis multa admodum morborum remedia, et rerum virtutes edocti sunt: sic chelidoniam visui salubrem herbam hirundines monstravere, quae cum ea pullorum suorum oculis medetur: et pica cum aegrotat, lauri folium in nidum immittit, et ita convalescit. Similiter palumbi, graculi, perdices, merulae lauri foliis annuum fastidium purgant, quo etiam corvi chamaeleontis venenum extinguunt: et leo febricitans, devorata simia, convalescit: upupa vero pastu lacertae, adianto sibi medetur: sic dictamnum herbam ad extrahendas sagittas utilem cervi docuerunt: siquidem percussi telo, hoc eius herbae pastu eiiciunt: idem faciunt caprae Cretenses: sed et cervae paulo ante partum, purgant se quadam herba, quae seselis dicitur: similiter phalangio tacti, cancros edendo sibi salutem quaerunt.
Sues etiam a serpentibus laesae, eodem sibi pastu medentur: et corvi cum venenatos se sentiunt toxico Gallico, quercum, vel ut alii dicunt, coruatiam quaerunt pro medela: elephantes chamaeleonte devorato, sibi succurrunt oleastro: ursi a mandragora laesi, devoratis formicis evadunt: medentur sibi anseres, anates, ceteraeque aquaticae aves herba sideritide: columbae, turtures, gallinae, herba helxine: grues iunco: pantherae contra aconitum sibi humanis stercoribus medentur: apri hedera: cervae herba cinnare.
De inimicitiarum inclinationibus.
Close translation
Now it is to be seen that all things have among themselves friendship and enmity: and every thing has something to fear and to dread, hostile to it and destructive, and by contrast, something that delights, blesses, and comforts it. So among the elements, fire is opposed to water, and air to earth — for through these four, taken in order at their extremes, the contrary elements are opposed to one another, while the middle ones agree with each other forever.
Again, among the celestial bodies, Mercury, Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon are friends to Saturn; his enemies are Mars and Venus. All the planets except Mars are friends of Jupiter, just as all hate Mars except Venus. Jupiter and Venus love the Sun; Mars, Mercury and the Moon are hostile to it. All love Venus except Saturn. The friends of Mercury are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn; his enemies, the Sun, the Moon, Mars. The friends of the Moon are Jupiter, Venus, Saturn; her enemies, Mars and Mercury.
There is another enmity of the stars, namely when they hold houses opposite one another: as Saturn to the luminaries, Jupiter to Mercury, Mars to Venus. And stronger still is the enmity of those whose exaltations are opposite: as of Saturn and the Sun, of Jupiter and Mars, of Venus and Mercury. But the strongest friendship is of those who agree in nature, quality, substance, and power — as Mars with the Sun, and Venus with the Moon, and likewise Jupiter with Venus: and there is friendship of those whose exaltation is in the house of the other, as of Saturn with Venus, of Jupiter with the Moon, of Mars with Saturn, of the Sun with Mars, of Venus with Jupiter, of the Moon with Venus.
And of whatever kind are the friendships and enmities of the higher things, such are the inclinations of the things subject to them, these lower things. These conditions of friendship and enmity, then, are nothing other than certain inclinations of things toward one another, desiring such-and-such a thing if it is absent, and being moved toward it unless hindered, and resting once it is attained; fleeing the contrary, and dreading its approach, and not resting in it. Led by this view, Heraclitus declared that all things come to be through strife and friendship.
Now the inclinations of friendship are found in plants and minerals: such as the lodestone's attraction toward iron; the emerald's toward riches and favor; jasper's toward childbirth; agate's toward eloquence. In the same way naphtha draws fire, and leaps toward it wherever it is seen; likewise the root of the herb aproxis draws fire from a distance, as naphtha does. And a like inclination exists between the male and female palm: when the branch of one touches the branch of the other, they fold themselves into a mutual embrace, and the female bears no fruit without the male; and the solitary almond tree is less fruitful. The vine loves the elm and the poppy; the olive and the myrtle love one another mutually; likewise the olive and the fig.
Among animals there is friendship between the blackbird and the thrush, the crow and the heron, between peacocks and doves, turtledoves and parrots. Whence Sappho writes to Phaon: (verse, summarized — see flag: the fragment concerns white doves pairing variously, and the dark turtledove being loved by a green bird — the exact wording is not recoverable from this OCR).
Again the mouse and the whale are friends. Nor is there friendship only among animals with one another, but also with other things — with metals, with stones, and with plants: thus the wild cat delights in the herb catmint, by rubbing against which it is said to be roused to mating, supplying the deficiency of the male; and mares in Cappadocia expose themselves to the blowing of the wind, and conceive from its breath and draw. So frogs, toads, serpents, and whatever venomous creeping things delight in the plant called laughter-parsley (sardonic herb), of which physicians say that whoever eats it dies laughing.
Again, the tortoise, when hunted by the serpent, eats marjoram and is preserved by it; the stork, in feeding on serpents, seeks its safety through marjoram; and the weasel, about to fight the basilisk, eats rue — from which we learn that marjoram and rue possess a power against poisons. So in certain animals there is a natural skill and an innate medicinal art: for the toad, when wounded by another's bite or venom, is accustomed to go to rue, or sage, and rub the wound, and thus free itself from the danger of the poison.
So men have been taught by brute animals a great many remedies for diseases, and the powers of things: thus swallows showed the herb celandine, wholesome for sight, with which they heal the eyes of their young; and the magpie, when sick, brings a laurel leaf into its nest, and so recovers. Likewise wood-pigeons, jackdaws, partridges, blackbirds purge their yearly sickness with laurel leaves, by which crows also counteract the venom of the chameleon; and the fevered lion recovers by devouring an ape; while the hoopoe heals itself by feeding on the lizard and on maidenhair fern. Thus stags taught the use of the herb dittany for drawing out arrows: for, struck by a weapon, they expel it by feeding on this herb; the goats of Crete do the same. And hinds, a little before giving birth, purge themselves with a certain herb called seseli; likewise, when bitten by the phalangium spider, they seek their cure by eating crabs.
Swine too, when hurt by serpents, heal themselves with the same food; and crows, when they sense they have been poisoned by Gallic toxin, seek out oak, or, as others say, coruatia, as a remedy. Elephants, having devoured a chameleon, help themselves with wild olive; bears, harmed by mandrake, escape by devouring ants; geese, ducks, and the other water-birds heal themselves with the herb ironwort; doves, turtledoves, hens, with the herb mercury-weed; cranes with rush; panthers, against wolfsbane, heal themselves with human dung; boars with ivy; hinds with the herb cinnara.
On the inclinations of enmities.
Modern rendering
Now it's plain to see that everything has both friendships and enmities among itself: every single thing has something it dreads and finds horrible — hostile to it, destructive — and, by contrast, something that delights it, blesses it, comforts it. Among the elements, for instance, fire is opposed to water and air to earth: taken in order, the two extremes are opposed to each other, while the two middle elements agree with each other permanently.
The same holds among the planets. Mercury, Jupiter, the Sun and Moon are friends of Saturn; Mars and Venus are his enemies. Every planet but Mars befriends Jupiter, just as every planet but Venus is hostile to Mars. Jupiter and Venus favor the Sun; Mars, Mercury, and the Moon oppose it. Everyone favors Venus except Saturn. Mercury's friends are Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn; his enemies are the Sun, Moon, and Mars. The Moon's friends are Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn; her enemies are Mars and Mercury.
There's another kind of planetary enmity — when planets hold houses opposite each other: Saturn to the Sun and Moon, Jupiter to Mercury, Mars to Venus. Stronger still is the enmity between planets whose exaltations sit opposite one another: Saturn and the Sun, Jupiter and Mars, Venus and Mercury. But the strongest friendship belongs to planets that agree in nature, quality, substance, and power — Mars with the Sun, Venus with the Moon, and likewise Jupiter with Venus. There's also friendship where one planet's exaltation falls in another's house: Saturn with Venus, Jupiter with the Moon, Mars with Saturn, the Sun with Mars, Venus with Jupiter, the Moon with Venus.
Whatever friendships and enmities exist among these higher powers get passed down as tendencies in the lower things under them. In other words, friendship and enmity are really just tendencies things have toward each other — wanting something when it's missing, moving toward it when nothing blocks the way, settling down once they've got it; fleeing what's opposed to them, dreading its approach, unable to settle while it's near. This is the view that led Heraclitus to claim that everything comes about through strife and friendship.
You see these friendly pulls in plants and minerals: the lodestone's pull toward iron, the emerald's pull toward wealth and favor, jasper's pull toward easing childbirth, agate's pull toward eloquence. Naphtha, the same way, is drawn to fire and leaps toward it wherever it appears; the root of the aproxis plant draws fire from a distance just like naphtha does. Male and female date palms show a similar pull: when a branch from one touches a branch from the other, they twine together in an embrace, and the female bears no fruit without the male — a solitary almond tree, likewise, is less fruitful. Vines love elm trees and poppies; olive and myrtle love each other; so do olive and fig.
Among animals, there's friendship between blackbird and thrush, crow and heron, peacock and dove, turtledove and parrot. Sappho writes to Phaon about this (verse, summarized — see flag: something about pale doves pairing off in different combinations and a dark turtledove loved by a green bird — the OCR here is too damaged to quote directly).
Mice and whales are friends too. And it's not just animals that pair up this way — the same happens with metals, stones, and plants. The wild cat delights in catmint, and rubbing against it is said to trigger mating, making up for an absent male; mares in Cappadocia expose themselves to the wind and are said to conceive from its breath alone. Frogs, toads, snakes, and other venomous crawling things are drawn to the plant called sardonic herb ("laughing parsley"), which doctors say kills anyone who eats it — laughing as they die.
Again: the tortoise, hunted by the snake, eats marjoram and is protected by it; the stork keeps itself safe from the snakes it eats the same way; and the weasel, before fighting the basilisk, eats rue — which is how we know marjoram and rue work against poison. Some animals seem to have a built-in medical instinct: the toad, bitten or poisoned by something else, goes to rue or sage and rubs it on the wound, freeing itself from the danger.
Animals have taught humans plenty of remedies and hidden properties this way. Swallows showed us that celandine is good for the eyes — they use it to treat their chicks' eyes. A sick magpie brings a laurel leaf into its nest and recovers. Wood-pigeons, jackdaws, partridges, and blackbirds purge their yearly sickness with laurel leaves — crows use the same leaves to counter chameleon venom. A feverish lion recovers by eating a monkey. The hoopoe heals itself by eating lizard and maidenhair fern. Deer taught us that dittany draws out arrows — when struck by a weapon, they expel it by eating this herb, and Cretan goats do the same. Hinds, shortly before giving birth, purge themselves with an herb called seseli; and when bitten by a phalangium spider, they cure themselves by eating crabs.
Pigs injured by snakes heal themselves the same way. Crows, sensing they've been poisoned by Gallic toxin, seek out oak — or, some say, a plant called coruatia — as a remedy. Elephants that have eaten a chameleon treat themselves with wild olive. Bears hurt by mandrake escape the effect by eating ants. Geese, ducks, and other water birds treat themselves with ironwort; doves, turtledoves, and hens with mercury-weed; cranes with rush; panthers, against wolfsbane, treat themselves with human dung; boars with ivy; hinds with the herb cinnara.
On the tendencies behind these enmities.
Editorial flags — draft status
- verse: Sappho-to-Phaon couplet ('Et variis albae iunguntur saepe columbae, / Et niger a viridi turtur amatur ave' as best legible) — OCR of the verse lines is unreliable; not versified, only summarized in close/modern per spec rule 2. Likely drawn from the pseudo-Ovidian Heroides XV (Sappho to Phaon) tradition rather than a genuine Sappho fragment — needs checking against a printed source.
- table: the full planetary friendship/enmity table (Saturn/Mercury/Jupiter/Sun/Moon/Mars/Venus network, plus opposite-house and opposite-exaltation enmities, and same-exaltation-in-other's-house friendships) is legible but dense; recommend verifying every pairing against a critical edition, since a single dropped 'non' or transposed planet name would invert a doctrine.
- list: the animal/plant sympathy-antidote catalogue (tortoise/marjoram, stork/marjoram, weasel/rue, toad/rue-or-sage, swallow/celandine, magpie/laurel, lion/ape, hoopoe/lizard-adiantum, deer/dittany, hind/seseli, hind/phalangium-crab, pig/unnamed herb, crow/oak-or-coruatia, elephant/wild-olive, bear/ants, waterfowl/sideritis, dove-family/helxine, crane/rush, panther/human-dung, boar/ivy, hind/cinnara) contains several plant names (aproxis, coruatia, cinnare/cinnara) that are obscure or possibly corrupt even in clean printed editions — flagging all for re-key against page images rather than guessing modern equivalents.
- uncertain: 'musculus et balaena' (mouse/small fish and whale) — 'musculus' can mean either 'little mouse' or a small fish (a folk belief has a tiny fish guiding the blind whale); translated literally as 'mouse' per Agrippa's apparent sense but the fish-guide legend is the likelier referent and should be checked.