A large, ornate rectangular woodcut headpiece. It features dense scrolling acanthus leaves, floral motifs, and clusters of fruit. In the center is a circular medallion showing a landscape with a building or tower on a coastline and a ship on the water.

PHILO JUDAEUS ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BY MOSES.

PHILO JUDAEUS BOOK ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD WHICH MOSES DESCRIBES.

Ornate initial letter 'T' with floral and vine patterns.
AOther lawgivers, some have set down the laws they considered just, unadorned and bare; others, having included a large mass of material in their concepts, blinded the multitudes, hiding the truth with mythical fictions; but Moses, having bypassed both, the one as thoughtless and effortless and unphilosophical; the other as lying and full of sorcery; made a most beautiful and most solemn beginning of the laws, not
Bimmediately saying what one must do or the opposite, nor, since it was necessary to prefigure the minds of those who would use the laws, fashioning myths, or agreeing with those composed by others. But the beginning, as I said, is most wonderful, containing the creation of the world, so that the world is in harmony with the law, and the law with the world, and a lawful man, immediately
Ca citizen of the world, directing his actions according to the will of Nature, by which the whole world is administered. Therefore, no poet or prose writer could worthily praise the beauty of the thoughts of the creation. For it exceeds speech and hearing, being greater and more solemn than to be fitted to the instrument of any mortal. However, one must not be silent for this reason, but for the sake of

Ornate initial letter 'C' with floral designs within a square border.
OTHER legislators
partly with no ornament
used, prescribed naked law:
partly to exaggerate the
matter among the common people,
hid the truth with
fabulous figments. But Moses, having put aside both methods, the one as rude and slothful and little decorative for a philosopher: the other as lying and full of deceits, made a very beautiful and honest beginning of his own laws: neither immediately admonishing what must be done or not: nor because the minds of those about to receive these laws had to be formed first, inventing fables or receiving the figments of others: but admirable (as I began to say) is this beginning, having encompassed the creation of the world: since both the world agrees with the law and the law with the world, and a man subject to the law immediately becomes a citizen of the world, directing his facts to the will of nature governing this universality of things. That sublimity of the senses by which the creation of the world is handed down, no poet, no writer could praise according to its dignity. For they exceed every faculty of speaking or hearing, as being more sublime than to be able to be perceived conveniently by any mortal vessel. Yet one must not therefore cease, but by the zeal of piety