Lorenzo de' Medici, Seven Philosophical Questions in Verse

Francesco Berlinghieri, once your best friend. He judged that no one could explain those things more exactly. That greatest man valued my humble talent so highly that he even declared me superior to all the philosophers or theologians of that time, although I, recognizing myself and the meager powers of my own intellect, did not believe what he believed. That such a great man had such an opinion of me can be proven not only by this poem sent to you, but by another: at the time when that learned man, Giovanni Pico, Count of Concordia original: "Ioannes Picus Concordiæ Comes", betook himself to the City meaning Rome to debate nine hundred conclusions, he inscribed a certain defense for those very conclusions to your father. As soon as that defense was brought to him from the city, he gave it to me, through that most faithful and skillful secretary Pietro de Bibiena, with this admirable tenor of words. Because I do not recognize the erudition and integrity, nor do I believe they exist, I destine this book to you alone, urging that just as I am swayed by nothing except the truth, so you too should be moved only by the truth to approve or disapprove. He repeated these same things in my presence when I visited him. And in speaking, I narrated to his excellency with what benevolence and grace that most learned man, Cardinal Bessarion of Nicaea, embraced me. And this especially because he was accustomed to saying to me very often: You will be my heir. After many things

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