TO THE MOST SERENE

COSIMO DE' MEDICI II,

FOURTH GRAND DUKE

OF TUSCANY. original: "MAGNO HÆTRVRIÆ DVCI IIII." Tuscany was often referred to by its ancient name, Etruria, in formal Latin addresses.

Truly noble and full of kindness was the custom of those who sought to protect the illustrious deeds of men of excellent virtue from envy, and to rescue their names—worthy of immortality—from oblivion and decay. From this desire, images have been handed down to the memory of posterity, either carved in marble or cast in bronze; hence statues have been erected, both on foot and on horseback; hence the costs of columns and pyramids have been raised to the stars, as the poet says; A reference to Propertius, suggesting that monumental architecture reaches for the heavens. and finally, hence cities have been built and distinguished by the names of those whom a grateful posterity deemed worthy of eternal remembrance. For such is the condition of the human mind that unless it is struck by constant images of things breaking in from the outside, all memory easily flows away from it.

But others, looking toward things more stable and lasting, have sought the eternal heraldry of the greatest men not in stone or me— The text cuts off mid-word ("metallo" or metal) and continues on the following page.