A rectangular typographic headpiece featuring repetitive rows of fleur-de-lis and decorative scrollwork ornaments.

MOST SERENE

GRAND DUKE.

An ornate woodcut initial 'D' decorated with scrolling foliage and a bird.
D While I publicly profess that there is nothing of great merit in me, yet the great proofs of Your favor exist; and neither is anything detracted from Your most exacting judgment, nor is there any danger to me from the stain of ambition. The favors of superiors testify to the benevolence of the giver, not to the merit of the receiver; and just as the providence of the Divinity is not overturned by the fact that prosperous things happen to the less worthy, so the prudence of princes is not diminished by the fact that they do not favor only those of great merit.