Aminta

as it has already been said, they expect it nonetheless. Having therefore to adorn the printing of a work so graceful, it was appropriate that I also adorn it with the great name of Your Excellency. If M. Torquato were in the state in which he once was—no less envied then than he is pitied at present—he would truly be a worthy and singular subject for his own incomparable verses. Now, having chosen your person to honor this work, which is noble and great in itself if one regards its beauty and the fame of the author who composed it, but which is small and lowly if one regards me, since I give it nothing of my own; I did not wish, following the custom that others observe on similar occasions, to enter into the wide sea of your praises. For, by saying little, I would defraud your merits; and by saying as much as befits their greatness, I was constrained to weave for myself a vo