of medicine at Perugia, where his lectures attracted a large
following. His book, which appeared at Rome after his office of Papal
Physician secured him the leisure for its completion, is "On Every
Kind of Food and Drink Useful and Harmful For Man with a Consideration
of Their Prime Qualities" (_De Unoquoque Cibo, et Potu Utili Homini,
et Novivo, Eorumque Primis Qualitatibus_). [Footnote 52]

[Footnote 52: Lignamine interested himself in the new art of printing
and was the publisher of a well-known series of finely printed
_incunabula_.]

One of the important medical scientists of the end of the fifteenth
century was Benedict of Nursia, whose book _De Conservatione
Sanitatis_ is really an important contribution to medical botany. He
is placed in the list of Papal Physicians by Mandosius, whose
authority is usually unquestioned. Giacobilli is his authority. Marini
in his comments on Mandosius' work declares that Benedict was not a
Papal Physician but the ducal physician at Milan, and tells the story
of his exile from his native country Nursia. He was so distinguished
for his medical learning that he became almost at once one of the most
prominent of the physicians in Milan. There is no doubt, however, that
Benedict dedicated his book, {440} which is now looked upon as basic
in the history of medical botany, to Sixtus IV, and the suggestion
that he was a Papal Physician seems to have come from the fact that
though remaining in the service of the Duke of Milan he was summoned
in consultation to see this Pope during an illness.

Innocent VIII (1484-92).--Petrus Leonius, one of the physicians of
Innocent VIII, finds a place among Paul Jovius' "Eulogies of Learned
Men" and is the author of a commentary on medicine and mathematics and
a treatise, _De Urinis_. He had been a professor of medicine at
several of the important Italian universities and was very well known
throughout Italy. He was summoned to treat Lorenzo de Medici and the
early death of that illustrious Florentine gave occasion for a good
deal of opprobrium for his physician, though the most careful
investigation has shown that there was no reason for criticism of him.
The fact that Petrus Leonius had been called as the consultant in
Lorenzo's case shows how thoroughly he was appreciated. One of his
biographers suggests of him that he was "a learned rather than a lucky
physician." Physicians will probably appreciate that distinction,
better than others.