inimical to himself without letting them have a taste of his quality. He
records one skirmish which he had with Fracantiano, the Professor of the
Practice of Medicine, a skirmish which, in its details, resembles so
closely his encounter with Branda Porro, at Pavia, some time before, that
it suggests a doubt whether it ever had a separate existence, and was not
simply a variant of the Branda legend. "It happened that he (Fracantiano)
was giving an account of the passage of the gall into the stomach, and was
speaking in Greek before the whole Academy (he was making the while an
anatomical dissection), when I cried out, 'There is an "[Greek: ou]"
wanting in that sentence.' And as he delayed making any correction of his
error, and I kept on repeating my remark in a low voice, the students
cried out, 'Let the _Codex_ be sent for.' Fracantiano sent for it gladly.
It was brought at once, and when he came to read the passage, he found
that what I had affirmed was true to a hair. He spake not another word,
being overwhelmed with confusion and astonishment. Moreover the students,
who had almost compelled me to come to the lecture, were even more
impressed by what had happened. But from that day forth my opponent
avoided all meeting with me; nay, he even gave orders to his servants that
they should warn him whenever they might see me approaching, and thus he
contrived that we should never foregather. One day when he was teaching
Anatomy, the students brought me, by a trick, into the room, whereupon he
straightway fled, and having entangled his feet in his robe, he fell down
headlong. This accident caused no little confusion, and shortly afterwards
he left the place, being then a man well advanced in years."[214]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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