Notes

remollist les nerfs retirez

D’après Pline, XX, 97. «Radix contractos articulos emollit in aqua cocta, item podagras et similes impetus.»

La racine d’icelle cuicte en eaue, remolliſt les nerfz retirez,

Cannabis in silvis primum nata est, nigrior foliis et asperior. semen eius extinguere genituram dicitur. sucus ex eo vermiculos aurium et quodcumque animal intraverit eicit, sed cum dolore capitis, tantaque vis ei est ut aquae infusus coagulare eam dicatur. et ideo iumentorum alvo succurrit potus in aqua. radix articulos contractos emollit in aqua cocta, item podagras et similes impetus. ambustis cruda inlinitur, sed saepius mutatur priusquam arescat.

Hemp at first grew in woods, with a darker and rougher leaf. Its seed is said to make the genitals impotent. The juice from it drives out of the ears the worms and any other creature that has entered them, but at the cost of a headache; so potent is its nature that when poured into water it is said to make it coagulate. And so, drunk in their water, it regulates the bowels of beasts of burden. The root boiled in water eases cramped joints, gout too and similar violent pains [Cf. § 228 and note on XXII. § 122]. It is applied raw to burns, but is often changed before it gets dry.

les vertus du pantagruelion

Toute les vertus du pantagruélion que Rabelais va énumérer jusqu’a [voulez guerir une bruslure] sont attribués par Pline au chanvre (XX, 23 et 97) (LD/EC). Notons que R. accepte, comme tout le monde alors, la génération spontanée, notion faisant toujours autorité chez les médecins de la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle. Cf. J. Riolan, In libri Fernelii de Procreatione comment., Paris, 1578, 4: « Non est tamen necessarius congressus ad procreationem, nam plurima animalia de putridine excitantur … ».

remollist les nerfs retirez

Pliny 20.22: «Sa racine, cuitte en eau, mollifie et adoucit les doigts qui sont retirez: et est fort bonne aux gouttes et à toutes meschantes fluxions d’humeurs» (trad. Du Pinet).