Chapter one: The beginning of the letter of Saint Jerome to Paulinus the priest regarding all the books of divine history.

A large, ornate initial 'F' at the beginning of the text. The letter is blue with white highlights, set against a background of red and gold filigree with a central geometric lattice pattern in red and white.

Brother Ambrose, bringing me your small gifts, at the same time delivered most sweet letters which, from the beginning of our friendships, proved the faith of a friendship already tested and now promised new friendship to the old. For that bond is truly strong and yoked by the glue of Christ the Anointed One, which not the utility of worldly things, not merely the presence of bodies, not deceitful and fawning flattery, but the fear of God and the study of divine scriptures bring together. We read in ancient histories that some men traveled to provinces, visited new peoples, and crossed seas so that they might see with their own eyes those whom they had known only through books. Just as Pythagoras visited the Memphis seers, so Plato traveled to Egypt and visited Archytas of Tarentum and that same coast of Italy, which was once called Great Greece, with the greatest labor. And he, who was a master at Athens and powerful, whose doctrines made the gymnasia of the Academy resound, became a pilgrim and a disciple, preferring to learn the things of others modestly rather than to push his own forward impudently. Finally, when he pursued letters as if they were fleeing the whole world, he was captured by pirates and sold; he obeyed the most cruel tyrant, led as a captive, bound, and a slave. Yet, because the philosopher was greater than the one who bought him, we read that certain noblemen came from the furthest ends of Spain and Gaul to Titus Livius, flowing with his milky fountain of eloquence; and the fame of one man led them there when Rome had not drawn them to the contemplation of itself. That age held a miracle, unheard of in all centuries and worthy of celebration, that those who entered such a great city sought something outside the city. Apollonius—whether he was a magician, as the common people say, or a philosopher, as the Pythagoreans hold—entered the lands of the Persians, crossed the Caucasus, the Albans, the Scythians, and the Massagetae, penetrated the most opulent kingdoms of India, and finally, having crossed the very wide river Phison, arrived at the Brahmans, so that he might hear Iarchas sitting on a golden throne and drinking from the fountain of Tantalus, teaching among a few disciples about nature, about morals, and about the course of the days and the stars. Thence, through the Elamites, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Medes, Assyrians, Parthians, Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabs, and Palestinians, he returned to Alexandria and proceeded to Ethiopia, that he might see the Gymnosophists and the most famous table of the sun in the sand. That man found everywhere something to learn and, always progressing, always became better than himself. Philostratus wrote most fully about this in eight volumes.

Rubricated initial 'Q' in red ink with slight flourishes.

Why should I speak of the men of the world when the Apostle Paul, the chosen vessel and teacher of the Gentiles, who spoke of the consciousness of such a great guest within himself, saying: "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?" After Damascus and Arabia were traversed, he ascended to Jerusalem that he might see Peter, and he stayed with him for fifteen days. For by this mystery of the week and the eighth day, the future preacher of the Gentiles was to be instructed. And again, after fourteen years, having taken Barnabas and Titus, he explained the Gospel to the Apostles lest perhaps he might run or had run in vain. The act of a living voice possesses a certain latent energy, and when transfused from the mouth of the author into the ears of the disciple, it sounds more strongly. Hence also Aeschines, when he was in exile at Rhodes and was reading...

Circular ink stamp of the 'BIBLIOTHECA REGIA MONACENSIS' (Bavarian State Library) located in the lower margin.