A decorative headpiece at the top of the page features symmetrical floral scrolls and a central mask.

TO MONSIEUR MY MAECENAS,

Maecenas was a Roman patron of the arts. The term is used here to address a primary financial and social benefactor.

MONSIEUR M. PIERRE BROCHARD

Lord of Marigny, Councilor to the King and Master of Requests in Ordinary of his Household, etc.

A woodcut initial 'M' shows a figure sitting in a landscape within an architectural frame. MONSIEUR, What will you say if I present you with the work of another? I do not fear that you will say I search far afield for someone else to answer for the obligations I owe you, for I have asked Poliphilus The lover of many things to offer you his treasures, so that you might choose what is most beautiful as a pledge for what I owe you. What makes me speak this way is that I have laid my hand on the key to the casket that this lover of Polia Ancient wisdom or the grey-haired one kept in his home. This is what I offer you: it is yours, and I bring it to you as a legitimate offering of my duty, so that at the very least I may be deemed worthy of the honor you do me in loving me and sharing with me the true proofs of your good affection. Choose here, then, what is yours, which is the labor I have employed in this. For it is you who caused it, since you established for me the leisure that was necessary to give back to our French people this abyss of beautiful inventions, and to offer them all the other pieces that have come from my hands. I hope that this same favor will make us produce, God helping, a beautiful fruit, as agreeable as that which can please is desirable. While I cast myself into the beautiful pursuits of my enterprises, to give me courage and to always favor my intentions, show me that you find it pleasing that I attempt day by day the occasions to give you a faithful demonstration of the very humble service that BEROALDE Béroalde de Verville owes and has vowed to you.