Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

¶Of Isope. chap. 85.

ISopus is a lyttle shorte hearbe, and groweth among stoanes, and clea∣neth by the roote to the harde stoanes, as Cassiodorus meaneth super Psal∣mum.

Dioscorides saith that this hearbe is hot and drye in the third degrée. The ver∣tue thereof is in floures and in leaues, more than in the stalke or roote. And in summer when it bereth floures, ye must gather them, and drye them in a cleane place and darke that is not smoakie, and they haue vertue to dissolue, to temper, to consume, to waste, and to cleanse the lunges, and cleanseth and purgeth the breast of all manner euils that commeth of colde, if it be sodde in wine with drye figs, and the wine giuen to the Patient to drinke: and doth aware ache of the stomacke and of the guts: washing & ba∣thing with the broth and water that it is sod in, purgeth and cleanseth the mo∣ther of superfluitie of humours.

This hearbe Isope heated in a shell, and laid on the head, abateth cold rume. Volam codentem reprimit, and doth a∣way ache that commeth of ventositie, & is called Haec Isopus, and Hoc Isopum, also. And Authours meane, that y^e mid∣dle sillable thereof is shorte, and some saye, that it is long. It is sayde in Aurora.

Est humilis petrae{que} suis, radicibus haerens, Et vitijs Isopus, pectoris herba me∣dens.

These two verses meane, that Isope is a lowe hearbe, & cleaueth to the stone by rootes, and is medicinable for euils of the breast, and who that can scan a verse may know, that the middle sillable stan∣deth for a short sillable in the seconds verse. And in Anticlaudiano, Alanus maketh it long, and is made long in thrée verses that follow.

Se celum terrae conformat Cedrus Isopo. And againe another saith. Pectoris herba cauas rupes incedit Isopus. Yet followeth another verse. Ad Pulmonis opus confert medica∣men Isopus.

So it is long in all these thrée vear∣ses, that be heéere set for ensample therof. And Plinius saith, though that this hearb be little, yet it was of so great authori∣tie among men in olde time, that they

supposed, that they might not be clean∣sed in their Temples without sprinckling with this hearbe. Also among the He∣brewes, they that should be cleansed and purified, should be purified with a bundel of Isope, as mention is made. Exo. 12. & Leuit. 12.* 1.1 & Num. 15.* 1.2 Also the powder thereof helpeth against the dropsie,* 1.3 as Dioscorides saith,* 1.4 and cleanseth the body of wan colour,* 1.5 and causeth full faire co∣lour in the face, and abateth tooth ache,* 1.6 & tingling of cares, & slayeth long wormes in the wombe, as he sayth.

(* 1.7Hissope, is of two kindes, & it is hot & dry in the third dergée. Read Dodoneus.)

Notes

• * 1.1

  Levit. 14
• * 1.2

  Num. 19.
• * 1.3

  3. Reg. 4.
• * 1.4

  Psal. 51.
• * 1.5

  Iohn. 19
• * 1.6

  Heb. 9.
• * 1.7

  Additiō.