Aminta

*extend myself regarding the merits of your ancestors; since I had such a great field to speak of you alone, you who hardly consider those praises to be your own which you do not acquire for yourself without the help of others, and in whom shine all those virtues that befit a Prince descended from such high blood: indeed, all those which your ancestors had, and which each at present possesses by himself, are found in you alone, gathered with most beautiful harmony; and, far advancing your age, they make you remarkable to all of Christendom. And, to speak of you, writing to you, did not seem an appropriate place; knowing that Your Excellency, as much as you love to act magnanimously, so much do you also avoid hearing your own merits with your own ears, so as not to appear to assent to flatterers. And this is precisely what makes you much more worthy of being exalted from afar. These considerations