Epitome of Ptolemy's Almagest

You search out books most diligently; you acquire and guard them with the greatest zeal, so that in my judgment no one today is richer than you in this most excellent kind of furnishing The author uses the word "supellectilis" (furniture/household goods) metaphorically to describe a library as the essential equipment of a scholar’s life.. Thus, I believe it was by a certain divine plan that you lived happily in Rome, the common province of Greece, so that you might preserve the shipwrecked remains of Greek books and the volumes of so many most learned men that were soon to perish This refers to the rescue of Greek manuscripts following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Many scholars fled to Italy, bringing ancient texts that had been lost to Western Europe for centuries.. It is known to all how much study and diligence you have applied to this matter, what labors and expenses you have endured, thinking that nothing more disastrous could happen than if the books had perished along with their homeland. Therefore, in your kindness, you will deign to add this Epitome of ours to such a great and precious heap of books, so that by your sponsorship and leadership, it may become common property for students of the finest arts. If they happen to encounter any difficulty in the beginning, let them read the small books which we shall publish concerning triangles original: "de triangulis." This refers to Regiomontanus’s "De triangulis omnimodis," one of the first Western textbooks on trigonometry, which provided the mathematical tools necessary for advanced astronomy.; and thus, unless I am mistaken, they will easily overcome the rest.

Johannes Lucilius to the Reader.

This is the King’s Mountain original: "Regius mons." A pun on the author’s name, Regiomontanus, which is the Latinized form of his birthplace, Königsberg ("King's Hill").: the venerable seat of Johannes,
Whom you, friend reader, read as the author of this book.
He reveals a genius that once happened to few;
For he reports whatever closed secrets the heavens original: "olympus." hold.
The courses of the stars and the manner in which they move:
Believe me, only a noble mind grasps these things.
For he ascends the heavens and there anticipates things to come,
So that they might turn out favorably, and he knows much that offers help.
Therefore, let us venerate astrologers In the 15th century, the term "astrologos" encompassed both astronomy (the mapping of stars) and astrology (the interpretation of their influence). with deserved honor;
Rome, having followed them, was already the head of the world.