Georgii Agricolae medici Bermannus, sive de re metallica

continuity: continuation of the previous argument regarding the neglect of education and the importance of the work
original: "Max. esset data..."
It would have been given referring to the appropriate recognition in the greatest measure, not as we see happening today, where the best disciplines are treated with contempt and mockery everywhere. It would not be the case that certain most wretched scoundrels, endowed only with audacity and recklessness, snatch away the rewards that should have been decreed for good and learned men. I do not wish to indulge this justified grief too long or too untimely now. Our most illustrious Counts do well, and you and your most prudent Senate do well, because this honor is accorded to Agricola, regarding whose praises I must now remain silent. This place is famous for its abundance of metals, but how much more famous will it be in all time to come because of the monuments of this man? He has in his hands—to say nothing of other things—books on metallurgy the science of working with metals, which I mentioned before; he has Greek corrections on the books of the leading physicians, Hippocrates and Galen, collected with the greatest labor and vigil from the most ancient books. By these arguments, I ask, what else more useful or even more necessary could he have undertaken for his profession? Meanwhile, most noble man, I would like you and yours to think well and kindly of this little book, with which he has provided a prelude to the works he will one day publish on these matters. Farewell.