Plants to her had virtues known.”
Although the church was hostile to the philosophy of Aristotle, whose works were publicly burned in 1209 A.D. by order of the Council, Pierre de Vernon published, in the same thirteenth century, a short poem by the title Les Enseignements d’Aristote, the object of which was to vulgarize the scientific portion of the great Greek author’s Encyclopedia. This treatise commenced as follows:
“Primes saciez ke icest tretiez
Est le secre de secrez numez,
Ke Aristotle le Philosophe y doine,
La fiz Nichomache de Macedoine
A sun deciple Alisandre en bone fei,
Le grant, le fiz, a Philippe le Rei,
Le fist en sa graunt vielesce.”
Which, translated from old French, reads: “From whence learn that this treatise is the secret of secrets, that Aristotle the philosopher, son of Nichomachus, gave to his pupil, Alexander the Great, son of King Philip, and which was composed in his old age.”