_Magnifice ac poteus domine domine mi singularissime salutem perpetuam_, &c.,--I have received the letter Your Magnificence sent me through the Magnificent Aldovrandini, ambassador of the Duke of Ferrara, and have understood what Your Magnificence writes about the remedy you desire, for _in doloribus juncturarum_, entering into details, and when and how, &c. To begin with, _ante omnium_ Your Magnificence must be purged before the beginning of spring--that is, before the middle of March. Then if pains are felt the part is to be rubbed with the ointment made according to the recipe I have given to Messer Aldovrandini, which he will send to Your Magnificence. The pains will then cease, but should they return, and even if they do not return, some medicine must be taken to carry off the offending matter. My medicine is a conserve made up in solid form called _ellescof_, half an ounce is to be taken at sunrise once a month, particularly when Your Magnificence feels any pain. In order to prevent the return of these pains you must get a stone called sapphire, and have it set in gold, so that it should touch the skin. This must be worn on the third finger of the left hand. If this is done the pains in the joints, or gouty pains, will cease, because that stone has occult virtues, and the specific one of preventing evil humours going to the joints: _ego autem hoc expertus sum in me. Est enim divina res et miraculosa._ Afterwards in the summer, in the month of August, I will find celandine, which is a red stone that grows in the stomach of the swallow. I will send it to Your Magnificence to be tied in a piece of linen and sewn in your shirt under the left breast at the nipple. This will have the same effect as the sapphire afore-mentioned, and thus _Deo Duce_ Your Magnificence will be freed of and secure from every pain in the joints. Messer Aldovrandini will see Your Magnificence, and tell you fully about it. In order that Your Magnificence should be acquainted with the future I send you herein enclosed my forecast for the year 1488, and commend myself a thousand times to Your Excellency whom may God keep in perfect health.--Ferrara, February 11, 1488 (1489).[368] Lorenzo de’ Medici _to_ Piero Alamanni, _Florentine Ambassador at Rome_