The Book of the Concord of the Koran or Law of Muhammad and the Evangelists

A decorative woodcut initial 'C' featuring two figures in an architectural or garden setting. One figure appears to be kneeling or looking down while the other stands behind them, perhaps outdoors with stylized foliage.

I had decided within myself, for many reasons, not to inscribe and dedicate my future works, whatever they might be, to great men, according to a custom that is more than sufficiently accepted. Because of this, I dedicated my work on the Concordance of the World not to any private patron or prince, but to the fellowship of the Holy Church. However, since this part of the work and the catastrophe of the final act must now be cut from the rest of the body (for reasons you will see later), and is destined to be, as it were, an exile from that common patronage, your kindness and singular love, both toward all good and learned men, and especially toward me—though I am undeserving—have caused me to change my mind, so that it seemed it should justly be dedicated to you alone. For since it contains the indication and omen of the calamities threatening our time, and already imminent if God does not avert them, and warns our princes and magistrates what is to be feared and by what means the raging and murderous disease must be countered, its patronage could certainly never be obtained by anyone better or holier than you, who, by your singular judgment, have long foreseen the looming evil. Although you have held the most extensive offices in the Republic, having been freely chosen for them by the most Christian King Francis, and have indeed conducted embassies most happily and prudently in the most adverse times for the state, you have never separated the prudent man from the good man, nor the good one...