Musaeum metallicum

...dull the edge of [your] perception? He who not only presided over the Farnese court like a guiding Mind original: "Farnesiano... Mentis"; a reference to the intellectual and moral leadership of the Farnese family over the heavens, but also ruled the vast spheres of the Roman Church; a man wealthy not only in royal riches but in the inexhaustible treasures of God. He both crushed enemies with the sword and most munificently labored upon the splendid temple of Farnese Glory with gold and precious stones. Do you not, just like the singular Lily among the Farnese Lilies The fleur-de-lis is the heraldic symbol of the House of Farnese, display those seven golden grains I recently recounted—not unlike the planetary spheres of your ancestors—and embrace them within the orbit of your wisdom?

Furthermore, what of those rich mines of gold, silver, and especially iron arising in your lands, from which flow both the protections of ancestral War original: "Martis" (Mars) and the ornaments of the peaceful Toga? What of all those most excellent pearls—not those bursting from the shallows of the Indian or Persian seas, or the Thracian Bosphorus—but those shining forth in the renowned Red Sea original: "Erithraeo"; likely a metaphorical reference to the wealth or noble marriages of the courts of the Austrian and Medici courts? Do not all these things by right award this work on Metals and Gems to you?

Receive therefore, Most Serene Prince, with your accustomed kindness, a work which is yours by so many titles. From this contact, even the dross of iron, seasoned by your humanity, shall put on gold; for the very ages in which we live, entirely made of iron, strive through you to be reforged in gold and to sparkle with gems. And I pray as a suppliant: grant that I may be numbered among the last of your clients, while in my zeal to please you, I am willingly "condemned to the mines" original: "ad lapides, et Metalla damnatus"; a clever play on the Roman punishment of 'damnatio ad metalla', here meaning the author's labor on this book of stones and metals. I augur for you six hundred Olympiads woven for you in gold, and innumerable myriads of ages marked with gems for immortality.

Your Most Serene Highness's