The Book of Nature

->MR. JOANNIS VAN DE POLL, J.U.D. Doctor of Both Laws (Civil and Canon)
->MR. JOANNIS SIX, J.U.D.
->TOPARCH Lord of the Manor OF HILLEGOM AND VROMADE.
->MR. LIEVE GEELVINCK, J.U.D.
->TOPARCH OF CASTRICUM, MYNDEN, AND LOOSDREGTEN.
->MR. GULIELMUS MUNTER, J.U.D.

A decorative initial 'I' features floral and foliate motifs.

I pray, allow this immortal work of a citizen of Amsterdam, conceived and perfected in your city, to be dedicated to you by me! It was owed uniquely to you, and under your auspices and protection it was once founded.

But even the excellent author, had the fates allowed, would not have consecrated it to anyone else: for he dedicated the first beginnings of such a great effort to the four men of the Amsterdam Republic who were in power in the year sixty-nine of the last century 1669. I thought it my duty, therefore, to follow the purpose of that best of men in this matter as well. I have not entirely despaired that you would accept this book, now brought to perfection, with the same kindness with which your most ample predecessors had received its early drafts.

Furthermore, I will confess, I was moved by my own spirit, for it would not be entirely displeasing if I dared to offer this book to the Consuls of Amsterdam. Every Dutchman understands how you strive with the highest effort to magnify the true praises of a city that holds its head above all others. What, however, would exalt its glory more than the fact that it produced and nourished a man whom the wise men of the whole world, as far as it extends, honor in competition, solely for his merits?