On the Bishops of Gubbio

Ignited by this study of wisdom, whether You believed it pertained to the public happiness of those cities and peoples over whom You presided, or whether You desired to have many joined to You in the society and likeness of most honorable studies, it is well enough known that You labored greatly in this, that letters and the good arts should flourish everywhere, and that no men in all Your life were dearer to You than those whom You recognized as excelling in doctrine, or at least desirous and studious of letters. The most noble cities of Camerino and Ascoli proclaim this of You, as do Civitavecchia, Campania, the Maritime province, Umbria, and Picenum, over which You were given as president by the Roman Pontiffs received into heaven, Benedict XIII and Clement XII, and finally by BENEDICT XIV, who reigns happily. Nor did You depart from this practice in that most splendid Spanish legation of Yours, commissioned by the same best and wisest Pontiff BENEDICT XIV, which detained You for several years in Spain. For Your first and primary concern was not to know the wealth of a most powerful king, not to view the arsenals, the maritime ports, and the wonders of most noble cities, not to visit the places where Your ancestors—descended from the illustrious kings of Castile and Leon—once had their seats, but to examine libraries stocked with a rare supply of books, to know learned men, to increase literary commerce, and to dwell most tranquilly among Your books and Muses amidst the noise of the court. Recently, however, when this task was decreed to You by the same most indulgent Pontiff.