Prologue ❧ ❧

The reader will understand it better than I can express. And although other authors seek out well-known Lords (from whom they have received favors, and from whose patronage they hope to receive even greater ones) to whom they may direct their books—and I do not lack such figures in our province—I send these six books to Your Lordship original: "V.S." (Vuestra Señoría), a formal title of respect without being personally known to you. I do so because the affection you have for good Music, your skill in understanding and practicing it, and the praise that is well-known here regarding how much you favor musicians, almost compelled and necessitated me to send them and place them under Your Lordship's protection.

If, because sinners might misuse my books, some (who have a zeal for God, though perhaps not according to knowledge) A reference to Romans 10:2 should wish to accuse me for making an art so easy when it is actually profound—or what would be worse, if they attempted to slander Your Lordship for favoring books with which God might be offended—I would respond that they should also accuse those who make weapons, because with them men lose their lives. They should slander those who make money, since with it greed is increased; and they should grumble against the makers of laws, since with them lawsuits are sustained. I say too little: they would have to accuse God, because He created the iron from which weapons are made, and the metals from which money is fashioned, and the human intellects with which lawsuits are maintained.

God never created anything that was evil in its kind; for after the creation, the Scripture says: God saw (whose knowledge is infallible) all the things that He had created, and He approved them as very good original: "Vido Dios... todas las cosas... y por muy buenas las aprouò," referencing Genesis 1:31, and He preserves them to this day. The invention of the arts (which imitates creation) is good, and both the one and the other are for a good end. The abuse that men commit does not proceed from the creation, nor from the invention of the arts, but from an evil will. Thus, if anyone should use my work poorly, it shall be imputed and counted toward their own evil will, and not toward my work, which is an act of charity intended to guide men to God.

Of one thing I am certain: those who do not know the arts from their root and foundation do great harm. This is because the wise have so much to occupy themselves with in the beauties of Music, and receive so much spiritual delight and contentment from it, that they have no time left for trivialities. Desiring, then, to see idle men occupied in serious matters, to draw them away from the workshop of vices, and to lead them to God—or better said, to prepare them so that God may draw them to Himself—I have brought this present book to light.

Men who take advantage of it with this purpose will spend their time so well that, even while remaining on earth, they shall enjoy heaven, and will say with the Apostle: Our conversation is in heaven original: "Nuestra conuersacion es en los cielos," referencing Philippians 3:20. Let them practice, then, in Music, which shall be perfected in glory; toward which we must all journey as the goal and conclusion of our lives. Since God created us for glory, let us not stop at the created thing, but through it let us come into the knowledge of the Creator, and from knowledge into His love, and from love to good works; and from final good works, we shall come to rest in the perpetual vision, tension, and divine fruition. Amen.