Georgii Agricolae medici Bermannus, sive de re metallica

...so I hope that Agricola himself will not be angry with me, for he surely knows both my zeal and my good will toward him, and that I descended to the publication of this little book with no other intention than to help public studies. Even if he himself played with it wrote it lightly rather than wrote it, with lighter labor, and when he wished to relax his mind, not for the purpose of it being published, nevertheless, all fair judges of things will decide that it is such that not a little fruit can return to students from it. Therefore, this work, such as it is, strenuous man, I have decided to send forth under the title of your name and that of your most distinguished and learned son Andreas: both because you have been for so many years the prefect of this valley, which is a place second to none for the glory of metallurgy, and because you value liberal studies so much that you have sent your children even into Italy and other remote places of the world to be educated by the best and most learned teachers, not content that they be adorned with the images of their ancestors unless they are also ennobled by learning. Truly, it would be well with human affairs if this mind were held by all men who are established in public office, by God the Greatest and Best.