DEDICATORY

LETTER

An ornate woodcut initial P features foliate scrollwork patterns and detailed line hatching in the background.
For many who turn their minds to writing, there are usually many reasons for writing; for me, there is almost none, except truth and innate candor. Those others labor with great effort in listing their reasons; I labor less, believing I have said enough by stating that, whatever this work may be, I have brought forth a natural spirit at your command. This is my prow and my stern meaning the beginning and end, or the whole of his purpose: You are my guide and my author; my natural sincerity supplied the strength for a burden that was indeed beneath me. But let that saying of Ovid hold true in these matters: Ovid, book 3 of the Letters from the Black Sea original: "de Ponto", Elegy 4.

Though strength be lacking, yet the will is to be praised.
By this, I predict the Gods are satisfied.
This ensures that the poor man also comes welcomed to the altars,
and a lamb pleases no less than a slaughtered ox.

Receive this small gift with that same mind, you who are accustomed to think our trifles to be something, and judge it in part as yours, since you added the spur to the one already running. For as often as I recall with pleasant memory that blessed time in which you wished to deign me with your embrace, I cannot help but repeat exultantly:

Why should I mention your excellent genius, your highest learning, and your uncommon skill in the Republic, and in what is right and good