to Pope
Gregory XIII. He also wrote a work on "The Water of the Tiber" and a
series of dialogues on medicine as well as "Medical Aphorisms"
(Venice, 1535.)

Sixtus V (1585-90).--The principal physician of Pope Sixtus V was
Andreas Baccius, "who was famous not only as a physician but as a
philosopher and a man of erudite and polished intellect." Pope Sixtus
occupied himself with bringing fresh supplies of water into Rome and
we have a series of studies of these waters made by his physician. He
also wrote on baths and especially on those in the neighborhood of
Rome. There is also a book by him on "The Wines of Italy and The
Banquets of the Ancients." He was much more than an amateur as an
antiquary and wrote a book on "The Origin of the Old City of Cluana."
There is also a book of his on "Gems and Precious Stones," a volume on
"Poisons and their Antidotes," as well as a series of shorter
writings.

De Renzi in his _Storia della Medicina in Italia_ tells the story of
the earlier career of Baccio. As a younger man he became so deeply
interested in his scientific studies at Rome that he did not succeed
in practising medicine and was in danger even of starving because he
had not practical ways. He was rescued by Cardinal Ascanio Colonna,
who became his patron and provided him with the {456} opportunity to
devote himself to scientific studies without the necessity of thinking
about the obligation of gaining his daily bread. Baccio became
celebrated for his learning so that according to De Renzi his
"profound erudition passed into a proverb in his time." His great
opportunity came, adds De Renzi, when he was made Papal Physician to
Pope Sixtus V.

Castor Durantes, a skilled physician and poet, was another of the
medical attendants of Pope Sixtus V. In Giacobilli's catalogue the
following works are noted--"Treasure of Health," "On the Nature of
Food," which ran through many editions, the New Herbarium, and
_Theatrum Plantarum, Animalium, Piscium, et Petrarum_, Venetiis, 1636.
His Herbarium was done in verse and besides he wrote a series of poems
in Virgilian metre which attracted favorable attention from his
contemporaries.

Urban VII (1590-91).--The physician of Pope Urban VII was Demetrius
Canevarius, who was in his time, according to contemporary
authorities, the leading physician of Genoa when he was called to
Rome. He made a magnificent success at Rome, became very wealthy, but
was famous for his hospitality,