The Highest Good (1629) - Page 2

⚠Significant show-through from the verso page (title page) makes mirrored text "SVMMVM BONVM" and a large circular rose emblem visible through the paper.

A decorative horizontal woodcut band featuring a central human mask flanked by symmetrical scrolls of flowers and foliage.

THE PRINTER TO THE READER.

Since this Treatise on the Highest Good original: "summo Bono Tractatus" appears to expose the notable slanders of Brother Marin Mersenne directed against three most celebrated Arts—arts which are spotless in their naked truth, however much they have been defiled and stained by false Sophists and counterfeit Artists—I have therefore judged it worthwhile to attach this work to the response of the distinguished Robert Fludd original: "V. Cl. Rob. Fludd"; V. Cl. is an abbreviation for "Viro Clarissimo," a standard Latin honorific for an eminent scholar. to that very man. I do this so that you might more correctly judge that Monk original: "Monacho"; referring to Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), who was a member of the Catholic Order of Minims and a fierce critic of Fludd’s mystical philosophy.. Farewell.