# Mondella (Zurich, 1551) ## expand\_more Translated from the Greek by Enrico Prodi, University College London (2023) **To Lewis** *Katharios***,** **trimeters in the popular style** **by** *Euboulos* **Gessner.\[\*\]** An old belief of Pythagoras’ clever followers Holds that one soul is present in many bodies One after the other. Not very reasonable! Who can believe that Pythagoras was once Aethalides, then at the time of the Trojan War Euphorbus, and then Hermotimus, and again Pyrrhus, and afterward Pythagoras? Who Can believe this, if he *is* clever? Yet even Holy Scripture Mentions a metempsychosis of this sort (More or less) when it calls John the Baptist Elijah, the prophet who had lived Long before. This much is true, but the meaning Of Scripture is different: it does not maintain that there was A single soul in the two bodies, but that in some sense The Precursor of the Lord was equal, In faith and in zeal towards religion And in every virtue, to ancient Elijah. So it is that a proverb says a friend Is another self because of friendship, By an unbreakable bond that binds into unity the hearts Of good men, and by the virtue of what commands admiration. So it is that man and wife who are yoked for life In lawful covenant have in some sense A single soul inhabiting two tents, In full agreement of intent and habits. So it seems to me that Lewis *Katharios*\* Shares a single soul with Galen and Hippocrates, Those great lights of the medical art. For not only by his *clean* words and teaching Does he imitate medicine and the other sciences, But with his manner, too, And with his *clean* life, and often With his very deeds he displays his art excellently. The other kind of soul, the only immortal one, The one through which we piously know Christ, Is not at all equal to those, but stands so far Above them as heaven does the earth. --- [\[\*\]](#_ftnref1) Comment by the translator E. Prodi: "Gessner Hellenizes both Mondella’s surname (*Katharios*, from Italian *mondo* = ‘clean’) and his own first name (*Euboulos* = ‘of good counsel’, a calque of ‘Conrad’)." ![Gessner, Poem. In Mondella 1551](/sites/g/files/omnuum9491/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/gzp1565/files/383758-maximum.jpg?itok=vw8-zg_1) ![Gessner, Poem. in Mondella 1551-second page](/sites/g/files/omnuum9491/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/gzp1565/files/383759-maximum.jpg?itok=C34q-OSE) Gessner, Poem. In: Luigi Mondella, Dialogi Medicinales decem, Zurich: Froschauer, 1551, f. 117v-118r. Zentralbibliothek Zurich, signature: Md A 119. Persistent Link: VD 16 entry: Mondella, Luigi. *ALOISII MVN||DELLAE BRIXIANI, CLA=||RISSIMI IN ITALIA MEDICI ET || Philosophi, Dialogi Medicinales decem, nunc pri=||mum in lucem editi: in quibus multa & uaria || tum artis theoremata, tum historiae & || experimenta doctissime ex=||plicantur.|| ... Indicem || uerò in fine.||*. TIGVRI APVD FROSCHOVERVM || Mense Octobri, Anno M.D.LI.||. Zürich: Froschauer, Christoph d.Ä., 1551. \#Medicine #Zurichpublisher #Galenexpert