TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS AND EXCELLENT

Lord Gian Iacopo Lionardi, Orator of the Duke

of Urbino to the Venetian Senate.

A decorative woodcut drop cap 'S' featuring scrolling floral and foliage motifs.

It has always been seen, illustrious Lord of mine, and is continually seen, that things ordered well from the beginning have a good middle and an excellent end. Because that which is well regulated at its birth cannot fail—unless by the injury of others rather than its own lack of reason—except by dying. And because all things must in some manner be ordered toward their end, it seems to me of the highest importance to regulate the laws and the orders by which cities, peoples, provinces, and empires are governed. It is evident that many wise men have directed their journey toward this; and it is done by all, for there is no other end for which so many excellent men have endured labor than to compose our minds in such a manner that everyone, living in peace and contentment, may be satisfied with what nature offers him. And because the minds of legislators have been various, as have the places where they have placed the legal brake, and among many, Athens was notable, it seemed good to me to translate the present volume. In it, one will see that it is not without reason that the most wise Romans—born to show how much the intellect given to man by God could achieve—sent to the Athenians for laws at the beginning of the creation of their city, just as the sacrosanct Emperor Justinian reports. One will see with what diligence they knew how to constitute men for those offices