A wide decorative header composed of multiple horizontal bands of typographic ornaments (fleurons), featuring alternating floral motifs, petal designs, and scrollwork.

With the Triune protecting me!

The Exordium of the Respondent.

Ornamental drop cap 'P' depicting a figure seated in an outdoor setting with foliage and distant architecture.
That distinguished Polymath, Mr. Daniel Georg Morhof, who died on July 30, 1691, delivered an oration the previous year on Gold, when he had decided to explain the oration of Majoragius, titled: Philochrysus Lover of Gold, protesting that he was impelled by an honest, philosophical, and most innocent love for gold, although he did not labor much to possess it locked in a chest, nor did he believe that the title of Philosopher, Orator, or Poet was suitable for acquiring gold for himself: for philosophers delight only in the act of beholding, and rest in the contemplation of gold which they never possessed; but Orators and Poets, the former pour out golden words of a golden age, the latter golden poems, yet on the mountains inhabited by the Muses, gold mines were never investigated by anyone, much less discovered, since they abound indeed in sterile laurel leaves, but not in gold. Most true indeed! What then, I ask, am I to say here, Benevolent Reader? I, a man of poor condition, possessing no gold, which is not even reserved in the chests of my honored Father, as his income is almost insufficient for sustaining the household and a large family; moreover, I have not yet counted myself among philosophers, poets, or orators, being still a beginner, and well aware of my own meager resources, yet willingly professing myself a student of the Arts and Faculties, to which I also refer History: Wherefore I think I shall not act untimely if, following the example of that most famous Man, I speak of...