Genealogies of Roman Clans and Families

And such was the happiness of those times, which were not only very far from the destruction of things, but also flourished in all matters, especially in studies and the arts. Therefore, there was nothing in all of nature so hidden, nothing so abstruse and obscure, that antiquity did not investigate, dig up, and bring into the light. To it, we owe innumerable arts, the knowledge of the greatest things, and the studies of doctrine and humanity; to it, we attribute whatever has been acutely thought or excellently invented. This last age of ours, however, while it rolls from nature toward its end and exit by a certain precipitous fall, snatches those very goods of nature, if any remain, along with itself to destruction. Thus it happens that since we have had no solid and clear likeness of the most beautiful things for a long time, we pursue only shadows and images. To this are added various accidents of human affairs, which rule in all things, and which often break and overwhelm our studies and contentions in their very course. I will not omit (what I truly believe I am about to say) that war is the plague and destruction of good arts, as it is of other things. For studies of letters are nourished, increased, and confirmed by peace, and these, celebrated during leisure, flourish; but when it comes to war, when one comes to the camps, then they lie afflicted and as if half-dead and are neglected; wisdom is driven from the middle (as the good poet Ennius writes), the thing is managed by force. The Roman Republic, not to mention the memory of the ancients, is a witness to this fact. For it, cultivated in leisure and tranquility by so many talents and such great studies, like a certain fertile mother, brought forth immortal births. In that time, we received Catos, Laeliuses, Tuberos, Ciceros, Varros, all filled with every kind of learning. Civil wars followed, the Republic was shaken by perpetual seditions, and when the tyranny of the Emperors succeeded Roman affairs, no honor was held for good disciplines, and all the excellent arts were almost entirely destroyed. But in the memory of our fathers and grandfathers, with wars almost at peace, when the long duration of peace had confirmed leisure, letters began to raise themselves a little and lift up their eyes. Doctrine first, which occupies itself with hidden arts and the variety of letters, then eloquence, and finally the study of antiquity were gradually aroused. But these were first in great honor and glory in Italy; in our Germany, however, they were not deemed worthy of such great praise. Doctrine was aroused by many others, but especially by Erasmus, and it is greatly celebrated today by the talents of many. Longolius was the first to take up eloquence, whose dignity and grace today John Sturm sustains, a man most polished in every kind of learning. The study of antiquity, however, was first embraced by our Cuspinianus, then also by Rhenanus and Glareanus, men of the highest talents and endowed with exquisite learning, truly with great praise and the remembrance of posterity. Following in their footsteps, Francis Hotman, most skilled in law, letters, and all of antiquity, having recognized the ardor of my mind for the studies of the good arts, was a great advocate to me that I should combine the study of antiquity with the knowledge of civil law. In which, while I labored most greatly and exerted all the nerves of the industry of this beginning age, I noticed both a wonderful sweetness in knowing and a pleasure distinguished by a certain pleasant variety of many things, but also a singular utility inherent in this study. For while we labor in knowing the tempering of that republic, which excelled all others not so much in the magnitude of its empire as in the excellent and wise description of its state, it is necessary that incredible fruits return to those who are about to approach the rudders of the republic. Added to this is that, while this youth of ours is accustomed to be formed in knowing the books of Latin writers, we can nevertheless obtain no solid and true fruit from them, unless