History of Serpents and Dragons

...to the sanctuary of [your] heart, already bringing to you the sacred headbands, the rods of office, and the purple robes in full measure. There are, I confess, leaders in your family who, having been clothed with the Heavenly tiara on Earth, held scepters over nations and command over souls; This refers to ancestors who served as Popes or high-ranking prelates. just as we celebrate their names, so do we venerate their divine spirits. But their ancient glory, which the Christian World recalls with grateful memory, receives a new brilliance from the radiance of your own heroic virtues today—a light that shall be darkened by no gloom of a stepmother-like fortune. The author uses "stepmother fortune" to describe harsh or fickle fate. It is glorious for descendants to have their cradles illuminated by the most ample titles of honor from the blood of their ancestors; yet it is far more glorious to graft one's own honors onto those of others, and by one's own merits to shine in the light of the age as an example to posterity. Your fortune, O most wise Prince, is in a high place because your virtue is in plain view; because both shine without ambition and scatter the seeds of a great soul, destined to take root in the soil of eternity as a trunk of solid glory. Indeed, when we decided to hang this volume of printed pages—which the rich Museum of exotic things by Aldrovandi original: "Aldrouandi exoticarum rerum diues Musæum." Refers to Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), the famous Italian naturalist. suggested to us—upon the altars of your dignity, what else did we seem to do with you than to pay a debt contracted from a previous obligation? I am mistaken, O most kind Patron; we have instead made a "renewal of the debt" A legal term, novatio, meaning replacing an old contract with a new one. by borrowing fame for this work from your name. Receive it, therefore, with your accustomed look of serenity; protect it with the solid shield of your authority; cherish it in the open embrace of your kindness. Thus shall we more readily applaud your virtue as it grows toward the highest peaks of glory. Farewell.