| Garlic, as Galen writes {{...}}, is hot and dry in the fourth degree {{...}} Garlic is irritating and burning; it hurts, dries and bloats the stomach, it induces thirts, makes the head spin and clouds the eyes, therefore wise men do well to be wary of it. {{...}} Garlic is greatly beneficial {{...}} to those who travel to foreign lands and overseas, especially where there are venomous reptiles and noxious, foul-smelling waters. Likewise, it is good against the plague, but only to gross people (peasantry), who are used accustomed to eating garlic, {{...}} because it amplifies their innate heat and helps burn all excess matter; but it in a luxurious man it does much harm.
| oryg = Czosnek domowy, pisze Galenus {{...}}, jest rozpalający i wysuszający w czwartym stopniu {{...}} Czosnek gryzie, zapala, morzenia w żywocie czyni, w głowie dmie, żołądek wysusza, pragnienie czyni, wzdymanie żywota, oczy zacimia; przeto nieźle czynią mądrzy ludzie, że się go warują. {{...}} Czosnek domowy jest wielkiego pożytku przeciw wodom szkodliwym, {{...}} jako tym, którzy jeżdżą po wodach i cudzych krainach, gdzie rozmaite gady jadowite i miejsca smrodliwe, zwłaszcza na morzu pożywając. Tymże obyczajem, czasu morowego powietrza – ale to rozumiej grubym ludziom (chłopstwu), a którzy mają czosnku zwyczaj; {{...}} albowiem w nich gorąco przyrodzone pomnaża, wszystkie zbytki wypalając trawi; ale w człowieku rozkosznym wiele złego czyni.
| źródło = {{Cyt
[[File:Pęczek czosnku.jpg|thumb|left|upright|"Garlic is irritating and burning; it hurts, dries and bloats the stomach, it induces thirts, makes the head spin and clouds the eyes…"]]
Long story short, garlic grows in the dirt, it has a sharp flavour and stinks, so it's potentially harmful to people who are used to luxuries. Peasants, though, who are used to eating garlic, aby may devour it without fear. Among many stories meant to remind peasants of their place, there's a particularly interesting one written by Sabadino degli Arienti around the time when Columbus was sailing in search of India. It's about a valet who was nagging his lord to make him a knight. The tired nobleman eventually conceded, but not without teaching his valet a lesson: he gave him a coat of arms sporting a head of garlic under a golden sun in a blue field and, for the crest, a virgin pinching her nose shut. The blue background and the sun symbolize ''air'' and ''fire'', which in themselves are noble elements that are perfectly fit for noble heraldry, but in this context they testify to garlic's ''drying'' and ''heating'' properties (in the fourth, almost lethal, degree). The moral of the story is obvious: garlic will always stink and a peasant will always be a peasant.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance