Ornate typographical headpiece consisting of repeating floral and scroll motifs in two rows.

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

AND MOST REVEREND LORD

LORD FRANCESCO

PERETTO

Decorative drop cap 'P' featuring a background woodcut of a landscape with trees and distant buildings.

ULYSSES ALDROVANDI original: "VLYSSES ALDROVANDVS"; the famous naturalist of Bologna (1522–1605) here brings forth his serpents to you, he who is by far the best among all natural philosophers original: "Physiologorum"; here meaning those who study the nature of living things. These are indeed serpents, yet they are not poisonous in their strike, nor lethal in their bite; they do not waste away the body with their spit or breath, nor are they fatal to the sight, such as those produced in the sandy deserts of Libya for the Africans. Instead, they are harmless, tame, and fruitful, because Wisdom has nourished them on the grass of Apollo a metaphor for poetic and scientific inspiration in the garden of the Muses. And although all of them, like the Scytale a mythical snake with a skin like parchment or varied colors, shine forth miraculously, clothed in many-shaped colors and a singular variety of facts and learning, they would nonetheless crawl in the dark upon the ground, stained by the mud of envy, did they not look toward you (Most Noble Prelate) as a Leader of the Muses original: "Musageten", who does not disdain to cherish this family of soothing snakes with your patronage. The most learned author has long since sought to attract the great-hearted Lion of the Peretto family a reference to the heraldic lion on the Peretti family coat of arms with his literary services...