TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

AND MOST NOBLE HOLY ROMAN

EMPIRE COUNT AND LORD,

LORD ERNST,

COUNT OF HOLSTEIN, SCHAUM-

BURG AND STERNBERG, LORD

of Gehmen, etc.

Dedicates, Presents, and Devotes.

original Latin: "D. D. D." (Dedicat, Dat, Dicat). This is a traditional formal formula used in book dedications.

MICHAEL MAIER, COUNT PALATINE

Imperial Exempt Noble, Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, Poet Laureate.

Michael Maier (1568–1622) was an influential German physician, counselor to Emperor Rudolf II, and a famous writer on alchemy and Rosicrucianism.

LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON. original Latin: "BIBLIOTHECA REG. COLL. MED. LONDIN." This is a stamp indicating the book was once part of the historic medical library in London.

SOCRATES the Philosopher, most illustrious Count, who by the judgment of the Delphic oracle and all of Greece was held to be the wisest of all, used to profess that he knew only this one thing: That he knew nothing. And Heraclitus A Greek philosopher (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) famous for his idea that "everything flows" and his focus on the hidden nature of reality. used to say that truth is held confined, buried in subterranean enclosures, from which it is extremely difficult for it to emerge, unless it is at last revealed and dug out by its father—that is, by Time. These two most excellent men, as— The text ends mid-sentence at the bottom of the page.