On Phoenician Letters

it seemed right to dedicate this, because this matter is to be referred to that one man who is the author of the most excellent counsels to the most excellent prince of the whole world, so that the principles of secondary reason, placed in the use of speech and letters, might be reborn in his age and, having been recalled from the underworld of oblivion, be handed down to posterity. This is done under the auspices of him who, through his counsel, as far as it lies within him, works diligently with the Most Christian King so that the true fruit of letters might be born in the Christian Republic, which indeed proceeds from nothing but the true and primary origin of reason. To letters, as a matter nearest to immortality, we owe this: that we are able to consult for others, to use other gifts of both wisdom and prudence, and to provide for posterity. Although I assert that you are present with the most excellent counsels to the highest King—even if I understand that to ascribe myself to you is the greatest gift of this life, and I affirm that you are not slothful in it—which could hardly be accomplished by the highest of men and by a Senate adorned with letters and customs, let alone by one single man, especially of your age: nevertheless, whoever is compelled by equity rather than affection to temper his judgment will judge this assertion of mine to be most far removed not only from rashness or any suspicion of flattery, but most closely joined to the truest truth. For what could be judged more admirable under the majesty of the Most Christian King, when never in the whole fifteen hundred years since salvation was restored to the world—and scarcely sixteen years after the beginning of the most happy reign of Francis original: "Francisci", a king of perpetual memory—has the most holy language of the world, having fixed its base in France with royal stipends in the final times of his empire, immediately [come to pass that] the Most Christian King Henry, the second of that name, otherwise distracted and pressed by the highest occupations and those necessary for administering such a great kingdom, and especially by the reformation of his military affairs, nevertheless...