GAULMINI PRAEFATIO.

GAULMIN’S PREFACE.

"Not with such aid, nor with such defenders
Does the time have need."

Everyone of a better mind will write in a far different way, and we have attempted to write that way ourselves. But I had almost omitted the two greatest things I provided in this little work: brevity and modesty. You who will judge both with an open mind will find both. Furthermore, I have not touched upon the theological and philosophical parts, which are very numerous, because that would have been "to snatch a cake already kneaded by another" 2. Farewell, candid reader. But I also want you to be warned of this: I used two handwritten codices, one of my own and one belonging to the most learned Federicus Morellus, to whom I profess to owe much on many counts. But our printer, Gulielmus Lebé, also contributed his share, namely his Arabic characters; he is a man most studious of oriental languages and, if these times permitted, one who would be an excellent propagator of them.

1) This verse is found among the Metrical Proverbs v. 872, formed, it seems, in imitation of Euripides, Andromache 368: "This is for each man a greater feat than capturing Troy."
2) This is among Suidas’s Adages 9.66, "used of those who boast of others’ labors."