TO THE MOST REVEREND

Decorative woodcut initial letter E, depicting four putti or young children in a rural setting with a tree and architectural elements in the background, all within a square border.
SUCH IS THE CELEBRITY OF YOUR ILLUSTRIOUS FAME,
most reverend and most illustrious Prince,
such the magnitude of your virtues and the splen-
dor of your learning, the frequent exercise of the
best literature, your grave speech combined with
solid prudence, and your elegant readiness of
speaking; such is your knowledge of many things,
constant religion, and most praised morals, with
which you are endowed far above the common
custom of others. I keep silent regarding the ancient lineages of your eminent nobility, and your treasures of riches both old and new, the breadth of your dominion, and the miters The ceremonial headdress of a bishop, used here to represent his various high ecclesiastical offices. of your sacred dignities, the excellence of which even rivals the decent form and strength of your body. Although all these things are very great, I nevertheless judge you to be far greater for all those heroic and most illustrious virtues of yours. By these you have truly ensured that the more learned and the more loving of virtue a person is, the more they desire to be introduced to your benevolence. For this reason, I too have decided that I must seek that honor of yours, but in the manner of the Parthians original: "Parthorum more"; referring to an ancient custom mentioned by writers like Seneca, where no one was permitted to greet a king or prince without offering a gift.—that is, I say, not without a gift. We see this custom of greeting a Prince derived from the centuries of the ancients down to our own times and observed even to this day. And as I saw all other men, distinguished for their learning, adorning you with the beautiful and great gifts of their teachings, I did not dare to approach your highness with empty hands, lest I alone appear as a deserter of your honor and veneration. While thinking and looking around in my library for what gift I might be able to bestow upon so distinguished a Prince, behold—among the hidden things, there suddenly offered themselves the books on Occult Philosophy, or On Magic. I had begun to write these as quite a young man, and had for many years set them aside as if forgotten. Soon, out of veneration for your highness, I hurried to complete them, as if to fulfill a vow. Indeed, I persuaded myself that I could give you nothing more pleasing than a new work of the most ancient and most abstruse doctrine—a work, I say, of my curious youth, but the doctrine of antiquity; I might dare to say...